Italian Comedians Taking Their Bows

c. 1718

Antoine Watteau

Artist, French, 1684 - 1721

Media Options

This object’s media is free and in the public domain. Read our full Open Access policy for images.

Artwork overview

  • Medium

    red chalk and graphite on cream laid paper

  • Credit Line

    Gift of Gertrude Laughlin Chanler

  • Dimensions

    overall: 17.8 x 18.5 cm (7 x 7 5/16 in.)

  • Accession

    2000.9.27

  • Catalogue Raisonné

    Rosenberg/Prat 1996, no. 622


Artwork history & notes

Provenance

The Marquis de Chennevières, Paris, (1820 - 1899) (Lugt 2072); (his sale, Hôtel Drouot, Paris, 5-6 May 1898, no. 205). Marius Paulme (Lugt 1910); (his sale, Galerie Georges Petit, Paris, 13 May 1929, no. 260); Hon. Irwin Boyle Laughlin, Washington, D.C.; his wife, Therese Iselin Laughlin, 1941; their daughter, Gertrude Laughlin Chanler, New York, 1958; gift to NGA, 2000.

Associated Names

Exhibition History

1982

  • Eighteenth Century Drawings from the Collection of Mrs. Gertrude Laughlin Chanler, National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C., 1982, no. 24.

1984

  • Watteau, 1684 - 1721, National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.; Galeries Nationales du Grand Palais, Paris; Schloss Charlottenbourg, Berlin, 1984-1985, no. 101, pp. 56, 60-61, 77, 163, 176, 178-179 (reprod.), 201, 440 (fig. 4), 443.

2000

  • Drawings and Prints from the Permanent Collection (Summer 2000), National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C., 2000 (no cat.).

2009

  • Renaissance to Revolution: French Drawings from the National Gallery of Art, 1500-1800, National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C., 2009-2010, no. 42 (repro), pp. 102-103, 280-281.

2024

  • Un Comédien sans réplique. Pierrot dit Le Gilles de Watteau, Musée du Louvre, Paris, 2024-2025, cat. 29 (repro), pp. 82, 81-82.

Bibliography

1931

  • Parker, K.T. The Drawings of Antoine Watteau. London, 1931: 35 note 2.

1932

  • Eisenstadt, Mussia. "Watteaus Zeichnungen." Zeitschrift für Kunstgeschichte 1 (1932): 238.

1933

  • Parker, K.T. "An Etching and a Drawing by Antoine Watteau" The British Museum Quarterly 8 (1933): 2.

1957

  • Parker, K. T., and Jacques Mathey. Antoine Watteau. Catalogue complet de l'oeuvre dessiné. 2 vols. Paris, 1957: 2: no. 875.

1970

  • Cormack, Malcolm. The Drawings of Watteau. London, 1970: 25 (mentioned in the caption to pl. 30).

1973

  • Zolotov, Yuri. Antoine Watteau. Leningrad, 1973: 18, 22 (1985 ed.: 17, 28).

  • Boerlin-Brodbeck, Yvonne. Watteau und das Theater. Basel, 1973: 160-161.

1977

  • Eidelberg, Martin. Watteau's Drawings, Their Use and Significance. New York, 1977: 31-32, 46, fig. 18.

1984

  • Posner, Donald. Antoine Watteau. Ithaca, 1984: 265-266, 291 note 64.

  • Roland Michel, Marianne. Watteau. Un artiste au XVIIIe siècle. Paris and London, 1984: 117, 137.

1985

  • Sutton, Denis. "Antoine Watteau: Enigmatic Ironist." Apollo 121 (1985): 149-150, fig. 8.

  • Börsch-Supan, Helmut. Watteau 1684-1721: Führer zur Ausstellung im Schloss Charlottenburg. Berlin, 1985: no. 115.

1987

  • Grasselli, Margaret Morgan. "The Drawings of Antoine Watteau: stylistic development and problems of chronology." 3 vols. Ph.D. dissertation, Harvard University, Cambridge,1987: 345 n. 38, 379-383, 399, 405, no. 246, fig. 471.

  • Tomlinson, Robert. "Fête galante et/ou foraine? Watteau et le théâtre." in Antoine Watteau (1684 - 1721): The Painter, His Age and His Legend. Ed. François Moureau and Margaret Morgan Grasselli. Paris, 1987: 204-206, note 20.

  • Tomlinson, Robert. "Fête galante et/ou foraine? Watteau et le théâtre." In François Moureau and Margaret Morgan Grasselli, eds. Antoine Watteau (1684-1721): The Painter, His Age and His Legend. Papers from the colloquium held in Paris in 1984. Paris and Geneva, 1987: 206 note 20.

1996

  • Rosenberg, Pierre and Louis-Antoine Prat. Antoine Watteau 1684-1721. Catalogue raisonné des dessins. Milan: Leonardo Editore, 1996, 2: no. 622.

1999

  • Wintermute, Alan. "Le Pélerinage à Watteau: An Introduction to the Drawings of Watteau and His Circle." Exh cat. Watteau and His World: French Drawing from 1700 - 1750. London, 1999, 18, fig. 7.

2024

  • Faroult, Guillaume. Peirrot, dit Le Gilles, de Watteau: un comédien sans réplique. Paris: Lienhart: Louvre, 2024: cat. 29, 82-81, color repro.

Inscriptions

none

Markings

recto, stamped in red ink at bottom right: [collectors mark of Philippe de Chennevières (Lugt 2072); recto, stamped in black ink at bottom right: [collectors mark of Paul Émile Marius Paulme (Lugt 1910)];

Watermarks

none

Wikidata ID

Q64536241


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