Getty Museum
The Italian Comedians
Creator
Jean-Antoine WatteauFrench Artist · 1684–1721
All works by this person →The son of a roof tiler, Jean-Antoine Watteau showed a penchant for drawing and painting early in life. At eighteen he was apprenticed to a painter in his native town of Valenciennes. Soon after, with little money and few possessions, he made his way to Paris, where he made a living by copying the works of Titian and Paolo Veronese. There he entered the studio of Claude Audran III, the most renown
More on Getty ULAN- Date
- about 1720
- Medium
- Oil on canvas
- Culture
- French
- Department
- Paintings
- Institution
- Getty Museum
Five comedians have just finished their performance in a verdant park on the outskirts of Paris and look expectantly at their audience. Pierrot, the clown in a baggy white suit, is already holding his hat in his hand, hoping that a few coins might be thrown into it. Flanking Pierrot are four other performers dressed as characters from the Italian *commedia dell'arte* , which enjoyed great popularity in 18th-century Paris. Brighella wears a splendid greenish-gold suit and shoulder cape trimmed with black stripes. Mezzetin strums a few chords on his guitar, while Harlequin in a black mask with its horsehair eyebrows and moustache peers over his shoulder. A mock Spanish costume of black velvet with a white ruff identifies the figure on the far right as Scaramouche. The actors penetrate our world with an intense humanity and vivid reality, far removed from the theatrical artifice and caprice of the stage they have just left.
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