Antoine Watteau

Watteau, Jean Antoine

French, 1684 - 1721

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[A Collection of Engravings after Watteau]

Antoine Watteau · published mid-18th century · 1 vol: ill: ·  Accession ID  1985.61.2754

A man wearing loose, ivory-white clothing stands flanked by two groups of people in this horizontal painting. All the people have pale or peachy skin except for one person, who may have a brown mask. The man in the center, representing the character Pierrot, stands facing us with his hands by his sides. He has slightly bulging eyes, a bulbous nose, ruddy cheeks, and his full pink lips slightly smile. He wears a straw hat pushed back on his high forehead and a narrow ruffled collar around his neck. His shirt has long, voluminous sleeves and a row of small white buttons down the front. The pants are baggy and end abruptly above his white-stockinged ankles over white slippers. The fabric seems to have a sheen. In the shallow space behind him, a stone wall curves toward us to either side of a doorway that leads to a park-like setting. A crimson-red curtain is pulled to our right. Pierrot stands on the top of two steps, and the people to either side are arranged along the stage or the step that runs close to the bottom edge of the canvas. A spray of white flowers drapes down the front of the steps to our right of center. The group to our left has eight men, women, and children. Closest to us and in the lower left corner, a young man wearing a tomato-red jester’s costume trimmed with bells sits on the steps as he twists and looks back at the scene behind him. He holds a scepter or puppet in the shape of a doll-like jester. Two children gather at his feet. One weaves stems of white flowers together, and the other looks at us, smiling. Just above them another cleanshaven young man sits holding a lute in his lap. He wears a brick-red coat, brown breeches, and slate-blue stockings over crossed legs. He leans back and looks up and to our left, his round cheeks flushed. At the back of this group, two people wear tan-colored costumes covered in muted green and pink diamond shapes, and one might wear a brown mask. That person’s pink lips, black mustache and eyebrows, and black dots for eyes appear painted onto a hard, molded surface. The group of six people to our right stand on the same level as Pierrot. At the front of that group, a heavyset young man wears a gold-colored costume trimmed with black and a waist-length, Wedgewood-blue cape. He faces us but looks to our right as he leans back with one arm extended toward Pierrot. Beyond him are two woman and another person shown only from the neck up. The woman closest to Pierrot wears a pewter-gray gown with a scooped neckline. To the right of the man in gold is an old man with a long beard, wearing a black skullcap and cloak. He leans on a short staff and turns his head to look at the group. The last person on the far right is shown from the neck up and stands before the red curtain hanging from the upper right.
Antoine Watteau, The Italian Comedians, probably 1720, oil on canvas, Samuel H. Kress Collection, 1946.7.9

The Italian Comedians

Antoine Watteau · probably 1720 · oil on canvas ·  Accession ID  1946.7.9

Antoine Watteau, Seated Woman Looking Down, c. 1720/1721, red and black chalk with stumping on laid paper, laid down with later framing line in brown ink, The Armand Hammer Collection, 1991.217.11

Seated Woman Looking Down

Antoine Watteau · c. 1720/1721 · red and black chalk with stumping on laid paper, laid down with later framing line in brown ink ·  Accession ID  1991.217.11

Antoine Watteau, Three Studies of a Woman's Head and a Study of Hands [recto], 1718/1719, red chalk and graphite with black chalk and pink wash on laid paper, Samuel H. Kress Collection, 1963.15.34.a

Three Studies of a Woman's Head and a Study of Hands [recto]

Antoine Watteau · 1718/1719 · red chalk and graphite with black chalk and pink wash on laid paper ·  Accession ID  1963.15.34.a

Antoine Watteau, View of a House, a Cottage, and Two Figures [verso], 1718/1719, red chalk on laid paper, Samuel H. Kress Collection, 1963.15.34.b

View of a House, a Cottage, and Two Figures [verso]

Antoine Watteau · 1718/1719 · red chalk on laid paper ·  Accession ID  1963.15.34.b

Antoine Watteau, Two Studies of a Violinist Tuning His Instrument, 1717/1718, black and red chalk heightened with white chalk on light brown laid paper, with later framing line in brown ink, Gift of Howard Sturges, 1956.9.27

Two Studies of a Violinist Tuning His Instrument

Antoine Watteau · 1717/1718 · black and red chalk heightened with white chalk on light brown laid paper, with later framing line in brown ink ·  Accession ID  1956.9.27

A woman wearing a white and pale pink robe and holding a sickle sits on billowing clouds flanked by a lion and two young people in this vertical, oval painting. All three people have pale skin with rosy cheeks and blond hair. At the center of the composition, the woman, Ceres, sits facing us and she looks at us with lidded, gray eyes under faint brows. She has an oval face, small, pink, bow-shaped lips, and a dimple in her chin. Golden stalks of wheat along with pale blue cornflowers and red poppies create a crown in her upswept blond hair. Her white chemise falls off her shoulders and is loosely held in place with a rose-pink band that wraps around her right shoulder, to our left, and under the opposite arm. Shimmering, shell-pink drapery falls over her legs and covers one foot. Her other bare foot rests on a cloud like a footstool. A bundle of wheat is pinned between the fabric under her right elbow, to our left, and the lion there. With a long mane, his tawny face peers around Ceres’s hip from under the wheat. His mouth is pulled wide to expose one fang, and his pink tongue curls out of the other side. An iron-gray lobster crawls up the lower left side of the clouds beneath the lion. Ceres holds the curving blade of the sickle upright in her other hand by that hip. Near the sickle, a young woman and a child are seen from the chest up, each carrying a bundle of wheat. The young woman faces Ceres and looks off to our left, and the younger child, above her, looks down. Ceres and her companions are set against an arch of pale azure-blue sky filled with tan-colored and light pink clouds.
Antoine Watteau, Ceres (Summer), c. 1717/1718, oil on canvas, Samuel H. Kress Collection, 1961.9.50

Ceres (Summer)

Antoine Watteau · c. 1717/1718 · oil on canvas ·  Accession ID  1961.9.50

Antoine Watteau, A Man Reclining and a Woman Seated on the Ground, c. 1716, red, black, and white chalk on brown laid paper, The Armand Hammer Collection, 1991.217.12

A Man Reclining and a Woman Seated on the Ground

Antoine Watteau · c. 1716 · red, black, and white chalk on brown laid paper ·  Accession ID  1991.217.12

Antoine Watteau, The Bower, c. 1716, red chalk and red chalk counterproof on laid paper, Ailsa Mellon Bruce Fund, 1982.72.1

The Bower

Antoine Watteau · c. 1716 · red chalk and red chalk counterproof on laid paper ·  Accession ID  1982.72.1

Antoine Watteau, Mezzetin, c. 1716, red and black chalk counterproof on laid paper, Gift of Mrs. Beatrice Beck Fahnstock, 1963.12.1

Mezzetin

Antoine Watteau · c. 1716 · red and black chalk counterproof on laid paper ·  Accession ID  1963.12.1

Bibliography

1880

  • Goncourt, Edmond de, and Jules de Goncourt. L’art du dix-huitième siécle. 2 vols. Paris, 1880–1884.

1922

  • Dacier, Émile, and Albert Vuaflart. Jean de Jullienne et les graveurs de Watteau au xv iiie siècle. 4 vols. Paris, 1921–1929.

1984

  • Grasselli, Margaret Morgan, and Pierre Rosenberg. Watteau 1684–1721. Exh. cat. National Gallery of Art; Galeries nationales du Grand Palais; and Schlöss Charlottenburg. Washington, 1984.

  • Posner, Donald. Antoine Watteau. Ithaca, 1984.

  • Roland Michel, Marianne. Watteau. Un artiste au xv iiie siècle. Paris and London, 1984.

  • Rosenberg, Pierre, ed. Vies anciennes de Watteau. Paris, 1984.

1996

  • Rosenberg, Pierre, and Antoine Prat. Antoine Watteau, 1684–1721: catalogue raisonné des dessins. 3 vols. Paris and Milan, 1996.

2009

  • Conisbee, Philip, et al. French Paintings of the Fifteenth through the Eighteenth Century. The Collections of the National Gallery of Art Systematic Catalogue. Washington, D.C., 2009: 465.