The French Comedians
Item
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Title
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The French Comedians
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Description
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The costumes and repertoire of French comedians was distinct from Watteau’s favored Italian commedia dell’arte. This painting’s principal male figure is dressed in an old-fashioned, formal costume that in the eighteenth century would have been appropriate for a subject from antiquity. Typical of Watteau, however, the scene is entirely imaginary and does not align with any known opera or play. The entrance from backstage of Crispin, a character from the commedia dell’arte, underscores the improbability of the scene. Infrared reflectography shows a preparatory underdrawing on the canvas, probably by a specialist architecture painter, a practice Watteau often employed to create such stagelike spaces.
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Creator
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Antoine Watteau
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Date
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Ca. 1720
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Medium
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Oil on canvas
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Identifier
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Metropolitan Museum of Art accession number: 49.7.54
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Provenance
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Jean de Jullienne, Paris (by 1731–44); Frederick II (the Great), King of Prussia, Stadtschloss, Potsdam (1744–d. 1786); by descent, Potsdam and Berlin (1786–1888); Kaiser Wilhelm [William II, King of Prussia], Neues Palais, Potsdam (1888–1927; abdicated in 1918 and fled to Doorn, The Netherlands; this picture remained in Germany and was sold through Hugo Moser to Duveen); [Duveen, Paris, London, and New York, 1927–28; sold for $275,000 to Bache]; Jules S. Bache, New York (1928–d. 1944; his estate, 1944–49; cats., 1929, unnumbered; 1937, no. 55; 1943, no. 54)
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Is Part Of
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The Jules Bache Collection, 1949
TheFrenchComedians.jpg