Pierrot (Watteau) (original) (raw)

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Painting by Antoine Watteau

Pierrot
Gilles
Artist Jean-Antoine Watteau
Year c. 1718-1719
Medium Oil on canvas
Dimensions 184.5 cm × 149.5 cm (72.6 in × 58.9 in)
Location Louvre, Paris
Accession M.I. 1121

Pierrot, also retrospectively known as Gilles, is an oil on canvas painting of c. 1718-1719 by the French Rococo artist Jean-Antoine Watteau (1684–1721). Completed in the later phase of Watteau's career, Pierrot measures 184.5 by 149.5 cm, which makes up somewhat unusual case in the artist's body of work. The painting depicts a number of actors portraying commedia dell'arte character types, with one as the titular character set in the foreground.

By the early 19th century, Pierrot belonged to Dominique Vivant, Baron Denon, the first director of the Louvre Museum; it later passed to the Parisian physician Louis La Caze, who bequeathed his sprawling art collection to the Louvre in 1869.[1]

  1. ^ "Catalogue entry". 1718.