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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=09 December 2023|publisher=Cleveland Museum of Art}}

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Study for "The Romancer" (Le Conteur)

Study for "The Romancer" (Le Conteur)

Jean Antoine Watteau

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