This small picture is one of Nicolas Lancret’s most enchanting works. Along with his contemporaries Jean-Antoine Watteau and Jean-Baptiste Pater, Lancret is one of the best-known painters of the “galant age” in France. His paintings were once to be found in virtually all of Europe’s major princely art collections. In his art he turned repeatedly to the world of the theatre, displaying a particular fondness for the characters of the commedia dell’arte in their colourful costumes. The key figure in Italian comedy is the melancholy clown Pierrot, whom Lancret places at the centre of this work in imitation of Watteau’s Pierrot. Standing around him are a number of the other stock commedia characters: on the left, a pretty lover, possibly Colombina, wearing a typical Rococo dress with wide skirts; behind her the sly Harlequin (Arlecchino) in a black mask; and on the far right, the doddered Dottore wearing a doctor’s black robes. The woman in the diamond-pattern dress and eye mask is Arlecchina. Harlequin’s female counterpart differs greatly from the clown in terms of temperament, displaying instead a friendly character combined with wisdom and refinement, as conveyed by Lancret in this painting.
[Musée du Louvre, Paris - Oil on wood, 26 x 22 cm]