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Image scanned from a transparency and color-corrected by Ed Pollard-2008.
Study for Pierrot the Politician
Image scanned from a transparency and color-corrected by Ed Pollard-2008.
Image scanned from a transparency and color-corrected by Ed Pollard-2008.

Study for Pierrot the Politician

Artist Thomas Couture (French, 1815-1879)
Dateca. 1857
MediumOil on canvas
Dimensions7 x 9 in. (17.8 x 22.9 cm)
Overall, Frame: 13 1/2 x 15 x 2 1/2 in. (34.3 x 38.1 x 6.4 cm)
ClassificationsEuropean art
Credit LineMuseum purchase
Object number95.36.1
Terms
  • Clowns
  • Politicians
  • Study
  • France
Collections
On View
On view
DescriptionThis is a very small oil on canvas painting. It features two men wearing costumes of a Pierrot and a Harlequin for a masked ball, who are talking about politics in the newspaper. The two figures are seated in a room, one in white, the other in bright colors. The one in bright colors wearing the costume of the harlequin, a geometric pattern in brightly colored triangles, stands out against the colorless room and the figure in white opposite him. The harlequin has his back 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. There are three glass bottles with various liquids on the right side of the canvas.

Label TextThomas Couture French, 1815–1879 Study for Pierrot the Politician, ca. 1857 Oil on canvas Like other academically trained artists, Thomas Couture perfected his compositions in carefully executed preparatory drawings and oil studies like this one. Here, he established in miniature the basic composition, palette, and tonal structure of Pierrot the Politician, on view at right. Museum purchase 95.36.1
4x5 transparency scanned on Hasselblad Flextight X1 by Ed Pollard-2018.
Pierrot the Politician
Thomas Couture
1857
Image scanned from a transparency and color-corrected by Ed Pollard-2008.
Two Politicians
Thomas Couture
ca. 1857
Photograph by Ed Pollard, Canon EOS-1Ds Mark II digital slr-2008.
Le Petit Gilles (The Little Confectioner)
Thomas Couture
ca. 1879
Scanned from a slide by Jimmy Brown; color-corrected by Pat Cagney.
Elegant Company in an Interior
Antonie Palamedesz
1673
Image scanned and/or photographed, then color-corrected by Pat Cagney.
The Artist in His Studio
Nicolas de Largillière
ca. 1686
New photography by Shane Butler captured with a digital camera-2010
Silhouette
1825-1875
Photograph by Ed Pollard, Hasselblad H4D50 - 2015.
Music
Philip Evergood
1933, revised 1959
Photograph by Ed Pollard, Hasselblad H4D50 - 2016.
Last Supper with Donors
Unknown
ca. 1575
New photography by Shannon Ruff captured with a digital camera-2006.
Bowl and saucer
Heinrich Bergmann
ca. 1875-1900
4x5 transparency scanned on Hasselblad Flextight X1 by Ed Pollard-2020.
Portrait of a Man
ca. 1615
4x5 transparency scanned on Hasselblad Flextight X1 by Ed Pollard-2017.
Club Julio A. Mella (Cuban Workers' Club)
Henry Glintenkamp
1937
Photographed by Scott Wolff. Image scanned from a slide. Color corrected by Pat Cagney.
Coffee
Richard Diebenkorn
1956
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