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Find the big box strapped to his back and the small case under his arm, then look closely at his weathered, good-humored face.
Around 1700 many poor people from the Savoy region came to Paris and lived by sweeping chimneys, scavenging or performing in the streets. This old entertainer carries his trade with him: a box of curiosities strapped to his back and, tucked under one arm, a smaller case that probably held his performing marmot. Watteau drew him with only red and black chalk, and four of his ten surviving studies of Savoyards seem to show the same man.
Red and black chalk on cream laid paper · 35.9 × 22.1 cm · Art Institute of Chicago · Rococo
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Details and source
- Museum title
- The Old Savoyard
- Artist
- Jean Antoine Watteau French, 1684-1721
- Date
- c. 1715
- Medium
- Red and black chalk on cream laid paper
- Dimensions
- 35.9 × 22.1 cm (14 3/16 × 8 3/4 in.)
- Credit line
- Helen Regenstein Collection
- Image license
- CC0 1.0 · Public domain
- Museum record
- Art Institute of Chicago
Galler’s rooms and hanging scale are imagined. The image is the museum’s original digital reproduction.