Antoine Watteau (c. 1727): Art, History and Details

Antoine Watteau (c. 1727) is in the Cleveland Museum of Art collection. The museum's creator attribution is François Boucher (French, 1703–1770); Jean-Antoine Watteau (French, 1684–1721).

The work and its context

The museum's open-access catalogue describes the work:

This etching served as the frontispiece for Jean de Jullienne’s The Works of Antoine Watteau (L’Oeuvre d’Antoine Watteau). Early in his career, Boucher reproduced more than 100 etchings of Watteau’s works for the publication, learning to emulate his elegant draftsmanship. This had a lasting effect on the young artist, as is evident in a comparison of Boucher’s Andromeda with Watteau’s The Clothes Are Italian, both on view nearby. The tribute to Watteau inscribed below the portrait translates: Watteau, adorned by Nature with happy talents,Was very grateful for the gifts she gave him:Never has another hand painted her more beautifully,Nor been known to display her with features so gallant.

Object facts

• Title: Antoine Watteau
• Date: c. 1727
• Creator attribution: François Boucher (French, 1703–1770); Jean-Antoine Watteau (French, 1684–1721)
• Culture: France
• Type: Print
• Technique: etching and engraving
• Dimensions: Sheet: 37.3 x 26.4 cm (14 11/16 x 10 3/8 in.); Platemark: 35.1 x 24.2 cm (13 13/16 x 9 1/2 in.)
• Collection: PR - Etching
• Department: Prints
• Accession number: 1925.1217

Collection credit

Gift of P. & D. Colnaghi Co.

Further reading listed by the museum

• Zorach, Rebecca, and Elizabeth Rodini. Paper Museums: The Reproductive Print in Europe, 1500-1800. Chicago, Ill: David and Alfred Smart Museum of Art, University of Chicago, 2005.
• Beeny, Emily A., Davide Gasparotto, Richard Rand, and Antoine Watteau. Watteau at Work: La Surprise. Los Angeles : J. Paul Getty Museum, 2021.

View the collection record

See the museum's photographs and full catalogue entry. Catalogue text is reproduced from the Cleveland Museum of Art's open-access data, with HTML formatting removed. This object and its supplied image are designated CC0.