Paris,
Watteau was the son of a French craftsman and was born in 1684 in Valenciennes, a city that was then Flemish, which is surely why the naturalism of Dutch painting is reflected in his, of outstanding depth and technical quality.
His artistic training at first must have been precarious and artisanal; Later he went to Paris and, since he had no means to make a career, he dedicated himself to selling his paintings in the markets, the so-called “San Roques” that peasants bought; His talent managed to attract attention and he managed to enter a workshop of more socially notable artists at that time. Despite maintaining a bohemian way of life, he soon began to gain recognition and in 1717 he entered the Academy, but the good things did not last long: he died before turning forty years old, suffering from tuberculosis, leaving, however, a fundamental legacy in the field of gallant painting and a naturalistic conception very relevant to later art.
One of his later works, dated around 1718-1720, is also one of the most ambiguous: his Gillesnow Pierrota composition that brings together the characters of the Commedia del Arte in the background. What is unusual about Watteau’s approach, which will reach Picasso and current art, is that we are faced with the first image of a sad clown, who looks down shyly, does not smile and has his arms fallen in a melancholic attitude. Watteau brings this figure to the foreground, leaving the rest recessed, emphasizing that whoever makes people laugh is immersed in sorrow; For the painter Bernard Dufour, it is the most enigmatic piece in the Louvre’s collections.
Beyond the familiar and iconic aspect of this strange character dressed completely in white, the composition, iconography and format of the image can raise many questions: its origins are completely unknown (the first certain mention dates back to 1826) and the Figure, although inspired by the universe of theater and in particular by Pierrot, and was the most famous comedian of his time, remains complex.
After the restoration of this work undertaken by the Center de recherche et de restoration des musées de France (C2RMF), which sought to restore it to its original brilliance, the Louvre has dedicated to the painting, a sort of eternal blank page, a monographic exhibition that examines its emergence in the context of theatrical life at the beginning of the 18th century and in that of Watteau’s own career, in addition to exploring the constant and fertile fascination that Gilles It has worked until today on authors of very different origins and interests, and not only in the field of plastic arts, but also in those of writing or cinema. From Fragonard to the aforementioned Picasso through Nadar, Derain or Marcel Carné.
The exhibition includes paintings (seven of them by Watteau himself), drawings, engravings, books, photographs and film fragments; They have been lent by numerous European and American centers, including the Bibliothèque Nationale in France, the Gemäldegalerie in Berlin, the Wallace Collection in London, the Thyssen-Bornemisza and the National Gallery of Art in Washington.
The tour begins by remembering how, in the early 18th century, various comic theater companies worked in Paris in fierce competition; both troupes Officials had as star characters Crispin, the great figure of the French Comedy, and Arlequin and Pierrot, in the case of the Italian Comedy (the representation of the latter was prohibited between 1697 and 1716). Other private companies, which performed a burlesque repertoire at the fairs in the French capital, did achieve notable success by borrowing Pierrot and Harlequin, but their activity was also sometimes impeded.
In Paris, where he settled in 1702, Watteau soon developed a great interest in these representations, reinforced by his collaboration, in the period 1705-1709, with Claude Gillot, an artist who specialized in capturing scenes from the Italian Comedy. . From this moment on, theatre, its comic repertoire, would be very present in the work of Valenciennes, who, in some cases, came to portray himself according to the codes of comedy, a singular choice considering that the actors were then clearly undervalued.
As we said, the circumstances under which he carried out this composition, centered on who we previously called Gilles and now Pierrot, are unknown, since its theme is not easy to decipher. It was assumed, without evidence, that this fabric had served as a poster advertising a café run by a former actor specializing in that role or as an advertising image for a fair theater show. Its authorship has even been debated, since it is distinguished, by its large format, from Watteau’s usually smaller paintings, but the position of the protagonist, frontal and symmetrical – as they say in France, straight like an i-, it does seem like an invention of this author and some elements represented, such as the sculpture with the head of a faun or the surprising association of Crispín and Pierrot, would have come from his hand. The style and quality of execution are also not in doubt.
It is known that, from 1720, Pierrot’s popularity on the Parisian scene declined, coinciding with the good moment of a new character in the parades that took place in front of the theater halls: as you guessed, Gilles. She wore a white suit identical to the previous one, of which we could consider it a modified version: rude and voluptuous, she raised intrigues to the detriment of her teacher Cassandra.
Although, as we advance, we do not know testimonies about Watteau’s composition in the 18th century, we can see that the image of Pierrot at this time was brought to his work by various French painters maintaining the same appearance codified by that painter; This was the case of Jean-Baptiste-Pater and Nicolas Lancret, both of whom were close to him, or of the more famous Fragonard, who in the 1780s made a charming portrait of a boy dressed as Pierrot where the memory of Watteau persists.
When the piece was first mentioned in 1826, it was part of the collection of the recently deceased Dominique-Vivant Denon, who was director of the Louvre. It was designated as Watteau’s masterpiece and was then titled Gillesin reference to that character in vogue in eighteenth-century parades. From that moment, and from its presence in several exhibitions, the painting gained fame until its incorporation into the collections of this museum in 1869; It was then bequeathed by Louis La Caze. The fact that, at the end of the 19th century, it inspired novels or musical shows tells us about its notoriety.
As for Pierrot, the origin, he would be profoundly transformed later by a brilliant actor: Jean-Gaspard Deburau, who, dedicated to pantomime, modified his costume and his character. His silhouette was lost in the same white suit, but larger, and his personality became disturbing, approaching drama or tragedy even in the most comical situations. Its evolution ran parallel to the gradual discovery of Watteau’s work and, seeing the face of the latter’s emblem, it is evident that they influenced each other: the interpretation of the painting has to do with the texts and shows linked to Pierrot; the iconography of the latter -whether in paintings, engravings or photographs-, with the artist’s icon. His subsequent revisions would advance along three lines: the tragic vision, the playful deconstruction or the enigmatic erasure.
“Revoir Watteau. A comedien sans réplique. “Pierrot, dit le Gilles”
LOUVRE MUSEUM
Palais Royal
Paris
From October 16, 2024 to February 3, 2025
