Italian Comedians Taking Their Bows
c. 1718
Artist, French, 1684 - 1721

Artwork overview
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Medium
red chalk and graphite on cream laid paper
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Credit Line
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Dimensions
overall: 17.8 x 18.5 cm (7 x 7 5/16 in.)
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Accession
2000.9.27
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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