Cleveland Museum of Art

Study for "The Romancer" (Le Conteur)

Jean-Antoine WatteauLinkedCulture matchlcp-2474206ac3c7

Date: c. 1716
Medium: red chalk; red and black chalk (upper left figure)
Culture: France, 18th century
Department: Drawings
Institution: Cleveland Museum of Art
Object ID: 110060

From the Cleveland Museum of Art record

This sheet was a preparatory study for the painting The Romancer . An actor in the costume of Mezzetin, a stock character of the commedia dell’arte (a type of satirical theatrical entertainment of Italian origin popular in aristocratic circles in 18th-century France), interrupts a guitarist with a bold sexual advance. Another actor dressed as the French pantomime stock character Pierrot peers lasciviously over the young musician’s shoulder. A more detailed study of Pierrot’s head occupies the upper left corner of the sheet, demonstrating Jean Antoine Watteau’s experimentation with how to most effectively depict a lecherous gaze. Jean Antoine Watteau likely drew this sheet from a combination of life study and imagination, working from a model and adding other elements of his own creation.

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Provenance & credit

As published by the source institution. Coverage varies — not every institution's open-data feed includes ownership history.

Credit line: Dudley P. Allen Fund
Provenance: ?-?: Andrew James, London | ?-1891: Sarah Ann James, London | 1891: (her sale, London, Christie's, June 22-23, 1891, no. 334) | ?-?: (Agnew, London) | ?-1928: (Richard Owen, Paris, sold to the Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH) | 1928-: Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH