.jpg?w=1)
Lot Essay
Pierrot's character was first introduced in Molière's play Dom Juan ou le festin de pierre which was performed at the Palais Royal in 1665 by French actors. Pierrot was a simple character with an accent from the Île de France, and Molière 'appears to have adopted an existing character of the commedia dell'Arte, Pedrolino (see lot 20), a young, personable, and gullible servant who was both innocent and charming, but nonetheless comic, and transformed him into Pierrot'.1 The painting of Pierrot by Jean-Antoine Watteau carried out in 1719 perfectly captures the melancholic defencelessness and vulnerablity of this character, and it was probably based on the actor Gilles le Niais. Watteau used a similar pose for Pierrot in different paintings, and these were all made widely available in engravings. Meredith Chilton notes that Nicolas Lancret also used the same pose for Pierrot in his painting Le théâtre italien, and 'numerous engravers in France, the Netherlands, and Germany copied or reissued engravings of these paintings and, as a result, Watteau's pose for Pierrot became standardized'.2
Only two other examples of this figure appear to be recorded, see Reinhard Jansen (ed.), Commedia dell'Arte, Fest der Komödianten, Keramische Kostbarkeiten aus den Museen der Welt, Stuttgart, 2001, p. 297, no. 303 for a coloured example, formerly in the Henry Levy Collection, now in the collection of Irene and Peter Ludwig, Altes Rathaus Bamberg (inv. no. L 188), and the white example sold by Sotheby's London on 16 July 1991, lot 33.
1. Meredith Chilton, Harlequin Unmasked, The Commedia dell'Arte and Porcelain Sculpture, Singapore, 2001, p. 100.
2. Meredith Chilton, ibid., 2001, p. 335, note 117.
Only two other examples of this figure appear to be recorded, see Reinhard Jansen (ed.), Commedia dell'Arte, Fest der Komödianten, Keramische Kostbarkeiten aus den Museen der Welt, Stuttgart, 2001, p. 297, no. 303 for a coloured example, formerly in the Henry Levy Collection, now in the collection of Irene and Peter Ludwig, Altes Rathaus Bamberg (inv. no. L 188), and the white example sold by Sotheby's London on 16 July 1991, lot 33.
1. Meredith Chilton, Harlequin Unmasked, The Commedia dell'Arte and Porcelain Sculpture, Singapore, 2001, p. 100.
2. Meredith Chilton, ibid., 2001, p. 335, note 117.