Study for "The Romancer" (Le Conteur)
Jean-Antoine Watteauc. 1716
The Cleveland Museum of Art
Cleveland, United States
This sheet was a preparatory study for the painting <em>The Romancer</em>. An actor in the costume of Mezzetin, a stock character of the commedia dell’arte (a type of satirical theatrical entertainment of Italian origin popular in aristocratic circles in 18th-century France), interrupts a guitarist with a bold sexual advance. Another actor dressed as the French pantomime stock character Pierrot peers lasciviously over the young musician’s shoulder. A more detailed study of Pierrot’s head occupies the upper left corner of the sheet, demonstrating Jean Antoine Watteau’s experimentation with how to most effectively depict a lecherous gaze.
- Title: Study for "The Romancer" (Le Conteur)
- Creator: Jean Antoine Watteau (French, 1684–1721)
- Date Created: c. 1716
- Physical Dimensions: Sheet: 35 x 27.5 cm (13 3/4 x 10 13/16 in.); Secondary Support: 35.1 x 27.8 cm (13 13/16 x 10 15/16 in.)
- Provenance: Andrew James, London, Sarah Ann James, London, (her sale, London, Christie's, June 22-23, 1891, no. 334), (Agnew, London), (Richard Owen, Paris, sold to the Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH), Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH
- Type: Drawing
- Rights: CC0
- External Link: https://clevelandart.org/art/1928.661
- Medium: red chalk; red and black chalk (upper left figure)
- Fun Fact: Jean Antoine Watteau likely drew this sheet from a combination of life study and imagination, working from a model and adding other elements of his own creation.
- Department: Drawings
- Culture: France, 18th century
- Credit Line: Dudley P. Allen Fund
- Collection: DR - French
- Accession Number: 1928.661
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