DescriptionThis expressive sheet is a study for the man's head in Watteau's painting "Mezzetin," also in the Metropolitan Museum. Mezzetin was a character in the popular commedia dell'arte, typically amorous and sentimental. In the Museum's painting, he sits on a stone bench outside a building, playing a guitar and gazing plaintively at an unseen window. The artist placed a female garden statue in the woods behind the Mezzetin, its back turned to the actor, suggesting an unrequited love.

 

 

In this robust red and black study, Watteau established the angle of the head, the uplifted eyes, and the parted lips that he carried over into the painting. In its emotional force and the melding of the two colors of chalk, this sheet recalls the precedent of Rubens, an artist much admired by Watteau.

ProvenanceJules Niel (French, died ca. 1873), according to the Biron sale catalogue.; Gabrielle Niel; Marquis de Biron (Paris and Geneva, ca. 1850s - late 1930s), his sale, Galerie Georges Petit, Paris, June 9-11, 1914, lot 63, bought in, (then re-entered the Biron collection, Geneva, and was acquired by the MMA in 1937).

Catalogue RaisonneBean and Turcic 1986.333; Rosenberg and Prat 1999.615 (vol. II)