Watteau Paintings

Rococo

Watteau Paintings 1684 - 1721 France, Rococo

Italian Comedians,1720

Oil on canvas

National Gallery of Art, Washington

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OIL PAINTING: Italian Comedians,1720
One of the most famous of Watteau's paintings- Italian Comedians, this scenes portrays a troupe of Italian actors, who improvised satirical skits in Paris, lined up as if for a curtain call. The personalities of the Italian Comedians were stock characterizations; the figure in the centre is Pierrot, who was cast as the amiable yet unsuccessful lover who was constantly ridiculed. Despite the animated gestures and flickering light, a certain tender pathos pervades the scenes. One of Watteau's last paintings, painted shortly before his death at the age of thirty-seven, Italian Comedians was supposedly given to his English doctor in payment of a medical fee.