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The Rommelpot Player

French (?) French
Former Attribution Antoine Watteau French
18th century
Not on view
This drawing was probably executed in France at a time when the vogue for seventeenth-century Dutch painting inspired French artists to cultivate their own approach to subjects of everyday life. Rommelpot players appear in Dutch genre pictures as quirky companions to butchers at work or more frequently as entertainers in scenes of casual revelry. Made from a pig’s bladder, the rommelpot produced a loud squeal. More of a noisemaker than a musical instrument, it was mostly used by children; accordingly, this drawing, now cut down, once shared the sheet with a sketch of a little girl at right apparently dancing to the “tune” of the rommelpot.

Artwork Details

Object Information
  • Title: The Rommelpot Player
  • Artist: French (?) (eighteenth century)
  • Former Attribution: Antoine Watteau (French, Valenciennes 1684–1721 Nogent-sur-Marne)
  • Date: 18th century
  • Medium: Red chalk
  • Dimensions: 6 3/4 x 4 7/16 in. (17.1 x 11.2 cm)
  • Classification: Drawings
  • Credit Line: Robert Lehman Collection, 1975
  • Object Number: 1975.1.764
  • Curatorial Department: The Robert Lehman Collection

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The Last Supper, after Leonardo da Vinci, Rembrandt (Rembrandt van Rijn) Dutch, Red chalk
The Last Supper, after Leonardo da Vinci
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Cottage near the Entrance to a Wood, Rembrandt (Rembrandt van Rijn) Dutch, Pen and inks ranging from light to dark brown, brown washes, corrected in white (oxidized, partially abraded), and touches of red chalk (in added structures to the left of the main cottage).
Cottage near the Entrance to a Wood
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Bust of Pseudo-Seneca, Peter Paul Rubens , and Assistant (?) Flemish, Pen and brown ink over black chalk heightened with white, with brush and gray ink
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