Description
Completed in the later phase of Watteau’s career, Pierrot measures 184.5 by 149.5 cm, which makes up somewhat unusual case in the artist’s body of work. The painting depicts a number of actors portraying commedia dell’arte masks, with one as the titular character set in the foreground.
By the early 19th century, Pierrot belonged to Dominique Vivant, Baron Denon, the first director of the Louvre Museum; it later passed to the Parisian physician Louis La Caze, who had his collection bequeathed to the Louvre in 1869.
