 | |
| The French Comedians |
 |
| Painting in frame: overall |
 |
| Painting in frame: corner |
 |
| Painting in frame: angled corner |
 |
| Profile drawing of frame. W 6 15/16 in. 17.6 cm (T. Newbery) |
Artist:Antoine Watteau (French, Valenciennes 1684–1721 Nogent-sur-Marne)
Date:ca. 1720
Medium:Oil on canvas
Dimensions:22 1/2 x 28 3/4 in. (57.2 x 73 cm)
Classification:Paintings
Credit Line:The Jules Bache Collection, 1949
The painting was engraved with the title French Comedians, playing a tragi-comedy. The principal male figure wears an old-fashioned formal costume: a hat with plumes, a wig, and a fringed, skirted silver garment lavishly embroidered with palmettes. In the eighteenth century this costume would have been appropriate for a subject from antiquity. The heroine dismisses him, referring to the crumpled letter on the floor. The scene is imaginary as Crispin, entering from the right, represents a different vernacular theatrical tradition and in reality would never have taken the stage at the same time.
Catalogue Entry
Watteau did not participate in public exhibitions, nor title his pictures, whose meaning is often difficult to fathom. This late work is clearly a theatrical subject, and as he is known to have made drawings of comic actors and quacks from an early age, he must have been interested in the theater throughout his short life. In December 1731, ten years after he died, the Paris journal Mercure de France announced the publication of an engraving after the painting, calling it "des Comédiens François, représentant une tragi-comédie" (some French comedians, performing a tragicomedy). The print, by Jean Michel Liotard (1702–1796), which was issued later, is inscribed in French and Latin with the title by which the picture is still known.
Early eighteenth-century Paris was alive with theater. The Comédie Française staged two plays a day, alternating tragic and comic subjects, during the season. While the Comédie Italienne had been dismissed and their theater closed in 1697, many of the disenfranchised actors performed with itinerant companies at the various fairs in and on the outskirts of the city. Watteau is known to have been acquainted with the comic actor Paul Poisson (1658–1735) of the Comédie Française, who was among the most famous interpreters of the role of Crispin, a lugubrious and interfering manservant. Here Crispin climbs the stairs from the formal garden in the background at the lower right. He is a heavy-set figure wearing, as usual, a black suit and hat, a wide leather belt, leather gloves, and a sword at his waist. However, generally speaking, Watteau did not paint portraits, but rather from the model, and there is no compelling evidence for identifying Paul Poisson as the sitter here.
The principal figure wears a formal costume of a sort Watteau rarely depicted: its old-fashioned style looks back to the reign of Louis XIV (1638–1715) and the operatic designs of Jean I Berain (1640–1711). In the eighteenth century this costume—the plumed hat, wig, and fringed, skirted silver garment lavishly embroidered with palmettes—would have been understood as appropriate for a subject from antiquity. It is impossible to tell whether the gestural language suggests tragedy or absurdity or whether, as seems likely, Watteau intended to leave his audience in a state of uncertainty.
Copyright Image
https://images.metmuseum.org
Comments
Post a Comment