Italian Comedians Taking Their Bows

c. 1718

Antoine Watteau

Associated Names
Antoine Watteau

Artist, French, 1684 - 1721

This is a drawing of a group of figures in an architectural setting. The image uses soft, sketchy lines in a reddish hue on a light background. The figures are arranged informally, some facing the viewer, others interacting. Architectural elements like columns or pillars frame the group. Gestural lines convey movement and vitality, while shading adds volume to the figures and space.

Media Options

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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 Number

    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

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

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

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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