Bring your favorites together in your free personal gallery.
Your galleryStudy for "The Romancer" (Le Conteur)
Look first
- What catches your attention?
- Where does your eye go next?
- What would you ask about this work?
Show me
Compare Pierrot’s face in the separate study at the top left with the same figure leaning in behind the young musician.
Watteau made this sheet as a study for his painting The Romancer. A kneeling actor dressed as Mezzetin, one of the standard roles of the commedia dell’arte, makes a bold advance on a young guitarist, while Pierrot, from the French pantomime, peers over her shoulder. At the top left Watteau drew Pierrot’s head again, in red and black chalk, to work out the leer.
red chalk; red and black chalk (upper left figure) · Sheet: 35 x 27.5 cm · Cleveland Museum of Art · Rococo
Look again
What do you notice now?
Try a quick sketch
Take a minute to sketch on any paper. No upload needed.
What did you draw first? What did you leave out?
Details and source
- Museum title
- Study for "The Romancer" (Le Conteur)
- Artist
- Jean-Antoine Watteau (French, 1684–1721)
- Date
- c. 1716
- Medium
- red chalk; red and black chalk (upper left figure)
- Dimensions
- 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.)
- Credit line
- Dudley P. Allen Fund
- Image license
- CC0 1.0 · Public domain
- Museum record
- Cleveland Museum of Art
Galler’s rooms and hanging scale are imagined. The image is the museum’s original digital reproduction.