Images

https://piction.clevelandart.org/cma/ump.di?e=A440D5F280C0C990A7849152E75591E43CAECE96672750F16951CB4F73B89446&s=24247294&se=1224198098&v=3&f=1928.661_o2.jpg

https://piction.clevelandart.org/cma/ump.di?e=97D30E41DEE84D4C3569132D4E3738C87AAF6FA3857BCB7FF304568F02F00A68&s=24247294&se=1224198098&v=1&f=%5C1928.661_o2.jpg

Additional Views

Nov 13, 2012

Study for "The Romancer" (Le Conteur)

c. 1716

Jean Antoine Watteau

(French, 1684–1721)

France, 18th century

Red chalk; red and black chalk (upper left figure)

Support: Two sheets (joined) of yellow-beige(2) laid paper laid down on cream(3) wove paper

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.)

Dudley P. Allen Fund 1928.661

Location

not on view

Did you know?

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.

Description

This sheet was a preparatory study for the painting The Romancer. 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.

Provenance

?-?

Andrew James, London

?-1891

Sarah Ann James, London

1891

(her sale, London, Christie's, June 22-23, 1891, no. 334)

?-?

(Agnew, London)

?-1928

(Richard Owen, Paris, sold to the Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH)

1928-

Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH

Citations

H. S. F. “‘The Romancer,’ a Drawing by Jean Antoine Watteau.” The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art 16, no. 10 (1929): 179–81. Reproduced: Front Matter; mentioned: pp. 179-181. www.jstor.org

H. S. F. "Drawings in the Classic and Romantic Tradition before 1830." The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art 19, no. 10 (1932): 166-75. Mentioned p. 167 www.jstor.org

The Cleveland Museum of Art. The Cleveland Museum of Art Handbook. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1958. Mentioned and Reproduced: cat. no. 591 archive.org

The Cleveland Museum of Art. Handbook of the Cleveland Museum of Art/1966. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1966. Reproduced: p. 133 archive.org

The Cleveland Museum of Art. Handbook of the Cleveland Museum of Art/1969. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1969. Reproduced: p. 133 archive.org

The Cleveland Museum of Art. Handbook of the Cleveland Museum of Art/1978. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1978. Reproduced: p. 175 archive.org

The Mask of Comedy: The Art of Italian Commedia. Exh. Cat. Louisville, KY: J. B. Speed Memorial Art Museum, 1990. Mentioned and reproduced: no. 10

Exhibition history

The Mask of Comedy: The Art of Italian Commedia. J. B. Speed Memorial Art Museum, Louisville, KY (September 11 - November 4, 1990).

Watteau, 1684-1721. National Gallery of Art, Washington, DC (June 17 - September 23, 1984).

17th and 18th Century Genre and French Drawings. Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (May 31 - August 19, 1979).

The 18th Century: 100 Drawings by 100 Artists. University of Minnesota, Minneapolis (January 24 - March 7, 1961).

Fêtes Galantes. Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, Richmond (January 20 - March 5, 1956).

The Eighteenth Century. Montreal Museum of Fine Arts. (April 26 - May 31, 1950).

Drawings by Old and Modern Masters from the Collection. Cleveland Museum of Art (June 21 - September 30, 1938).

Forty Drawings from the Collection. Cleveland Museum of Art (May 21 - November 25, 1936).

Exhibition of Lace, Drawings, and Furniture from the Museum Collection. Cleveland Museum of Art (July 11 - September 3, 1934).

Drawings in the Classic and Romantic Tradition before 1830. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (December 7, 1932-January 8, 1933).

Art of the Seventeenth and Eighteenth Centuries. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (November 9-December 2, 1934).

Fourth Anniversary Exhibition: Six Centuries of Drawings. Lyman Allyn Art Museum, New London, CT (organizer) (March 2-April 15, 1936).

Old Master Drawings from the Museum Collection. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (January 4-March 26, 1939).

The Silver Jubilee Exhibition. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (June 23-September 28, 1941).

Original Prints and Drawings by Masters of Berlin Museum Paintings. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (January 11-March 27, 1949).

Department of Prints and Drawings Opening Exhibition. The Cleveland Museum of Art (organizer) (March 3, 1958-October 11, 1959).

Italian and French Drawings. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (October 13, 1959-February 2, 1960).

The Eighteenth Century: One Hundred Drawings by One Hundred Artists. Frederick R. Weisman Art Museum, Minneapolis, MN (January 24-March 7, 1961).

Drawings. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (January 11-September 10, 1963).

Prints and Drawings from the Cleveland Museum of Art Collection. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (May 6-September 9, 1965).

Drawings. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (June 11-October 21, 1968).

18th Century Master Drawings. The Cleveland Museum of Art (organizer) (October 6-November 22, 1981).

French Prints and Drawings in the Age of the Bourbons, 1589-1792. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (February 2-May 16, 1982).

Northern European Drawings from the Cleveland Museum of Art. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (November 16, 1982-January 9, 1983).

Treasures on Paper. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (May 10-July 24, 1988).

Object Lessons: Cleveland Creates an Art Museum. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (June 7-September 8, 1991).

French Drawings from the Collection. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (December 13, 1994-March 12, 1995).

Themes and Variations: Musical Drawings and Prints. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (January 25-May 17, 2015).

Stories From Storage. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (February 7-May 16, 2021).

Cite this page

{{cite web|title=Study for "The Romancer" (Le Conteur)|url=https://clevelandart.org/art/1928.661|author=Jean Antoine Watteau|year=c. 1716|access-date=04 December 2023|publisher=Cleveland Museum of Art}}

Contact us

The information about this object, including provenance, may not be currently accurate. If you notice a mistake or have additional information about this object, please email [email protected].

To request more information about this object, study images, or bibliography, contact the Ingalls Library Reference Desk.

All images and data available through Open Access can be downloaded for free. For images not available through Open Access, a detail image, or any image with a color bar, request a digital file from Image Services.

You are here:

Images

Study for "The Romancer" (Le Conteur)

Study for "The Romancer" (Le Conteur)

Jean Antoine Watteau

Location

Download and Share

Did you know?

Description

Contact us