4x5 transparency scanned on Hasselblad Flextight X1 by Ed Pollard-2018.

Pierrot the Politician

Artist Thomas Couture (French, 1815-1879)

Date1857

MediumOil on canvas

Dimensions44 1/2 x 57 1/2 in. (113 x 146.1 cm)
Overall, Frame: 51 x 64 x 3 in. (129.5 x 162.6 x 7.6 cm)

ClassificationsEuropean art

Credit LineGift of Walter P. Chrysler, Jr., dedicated by the Trustees to Thomas G. Johnson, Jr. in gratitude for his long and distinguished service to the Chrysler, June 2005

Object number71.2064

Terms

People
Politics
Masquerade
White
Tan
Yellow
Red
Blue
Purple
Black
Paris

Collections

European Art before 1945

On View

On view

DescriptionThis oil on canvas painting depicts two men in costumes on their way to a masked ball (their street clothes are behind the harlequin), discussing politics in the latest _Le Moniteur Universel_. Two figures are seated, facing each other as if in conversation in a neutrally colored room. The floor is covered in hexagon shaped tiles. One figure is wearing the costume of the harlequin, a geometric pattern in brightly colored triangles. His back is to the viewer. The other figure has short hair and is in the white costume of a Pierrot; his profile is to the viewer, lit cigar in right hand and ring on the ring finger of his left hand. There are three glass bottles with various liquids on the right side of the canvas. A black hat and coat are folded over a chair. On the floor beneath the harlequin are a crumpled piece of paper and a broken bit of a pipe.

Label TextThomas Couture French, 1815–1879 Pierrot the Politician, 1857 Oil on canvas The theatrical performances of the Commedia dell’Arte focused on the antics of a set of comic characters, including the scheming servant Harlequin and the lovesick clown Pierrot. Thomas Couture admired the Commedia’s satiric punch, and in his paintings he used its characters to poke fun at contemporary French life. Here, two Parisian businessmen dressed as Pierrot (in white) and Harlequin have abandoned a masked ball to pore over the latest issue of Le Moniteur Universel, the French government’s official newspaper. Couture despised the middle-class obsession with “business, always business,” and here he takes a jab at those who cannot put aside their concerns with politics and money. Gift of Walter P. Chrysler, Jr. 71.2064