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Pierrot à la guitare

Entered December 2024

 

Whereabouts unknown

Medium unknown

Measurements unknown

  

PROVENANCE

Paris, collection of Jean-Baptiste François Montullé (1721-1787; magistrate). His sale, Paris, December 22-30, 1783, lot 58: “PAR LE MÊME [ANTOINE WATTEAU.] / Deux Tableaux faisant pendant, l’un offre un groupe de quatre figures d’homme & de femmes placés au milieu du Tableau; plus loin à gauche se voyent dans un touffu un Arlequin & un Scaramouche. Dans l’autre composé aussi de six figures, on voit sur le devant à gauche un enfant assis à terre jouant avec un chien; sur le second plan sont un homme & une femme qui causent ensemble; dans le fond à gauche, trois autres personnages forment un concert. Ces deux charmants Tableaux dont le fond est un Paysage, sont de forme en hauteur & portent 18 pouces sur 14 B.” Sold to Joseph Alexandre Lebrun [Le Brun jeune].

Paris, with Vincent Donjeux (d. 1793; art dealer). His sale, Paris, April 29ff (postponed to May 10), 1793, lot 349: “Antoine Watteau. Deux tableaux d’une bonne couleur, offrant différents sujets champêtres: dans l’un on compte quatre figures dans des habillemens de caractère, dont une jeune femme coëffée d’une toque, et un pierrot assis à ses pieds, tenant une guitare; l’autre tableau également agréable, représente dans les principals figures, un homme vêtu à l’espagnol, qui s’entretient avec une jeune dame. Hauteur 18 pouces larg. 13 p.  B.” The pair sold for 445 (or 449) livres to Jean-Baptiste Pierre Lebrun.

 

REMARKS

Pierrot à la guitare is a newcomer to the oeuvre of Watteau. Its eighteenth-century provenance and several copies after its composition were previously known, but they were misunderstood in relation to his painting, Harlequin jaloux. Indeed, the two compositions are almost identical. However, the painting sold in 1783 and 1793 had four figures at the center, not three as in Harlequin jaloux. Pierrot a la guitare, as we have named it,showed four figures: starting at the left there was a seated Mezetin, a seated woman with a fan, a seated woman who leans to the left, and at the right, seated on the ground with a guitar in his lap, a Pierrot.  In its overall aspects it closely resembles Harlequin jaloux, except that it has the additional woman behind Pierrot, inclined toward the central actress. Also, there is a small still life of scattered roses in the lower left corner, and instead of a male herm, there often is as a statue of Venus seen from behind—much as in the Mezetin in the Metropolitan Museum of art.

Sceptics may be concerned about the closeness of this composition to Harlequin jaloux, but it was not uncommon, especially in the early days of the artist’s career, for him to execute such close variations. His paintings Les Jaloux and Pierrot content, are good examples of his serial approach: they are very similar in composition, they were executed around the same time and are closely related in subject and composition.

 

For copies of Pierrot à la guitare CLICK HERE

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