Pierrot (c. 1850–60): Art, History and Details

Pierrot (c. 1850–60) is in the Cleveland Museum of Art collection. The museum's creator attribution is Paul Gavarni (French, 1804–1866).

The work and its context

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

This drawing, by caricaturist Paul Gavarni, presents a character from pantomime and festival culture. Called Pierrot, he is recognizable by his comically ill-fitting clothes and was popular in performances during Gavarni's lifetime. The artist drew Pierrot several times late in his career, often adding humorous captions, which likely related to his work in printmaking and illustration.

Object facts

• Title: Pierrot
• Date: c. 1850–60
• Creator attribution: Paul Gavarni (French, 1804–1866)
• Culture: France, 19th century
• Type: Drawing
• Technique: watercolor heightened with white gouache on off-white wove paper
• Dimensions: Sheet: 31.8 x 21 cm (12 1/2 x 8 1/4 in.)
• Collection: DR - French
• Department: Drawings
• Accession number: 1923.854

A detail from the museum

Around the time that Paul Gavarni made this drawing, he also created a series of prints called School of the Pierrots (1851–53), which chronicled the character's misadventures.

Collection credit

Dudley P. Allen Fund

Further reading listed by the museum

• T. S. "An Exhibition of Drawings." The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art 11, no. 7 (1924): 140-44.
• The Cleveland Museum of Art. Handbook of the Cleveland Museum of Art. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1925.
• French Watercolors, 1760–1860. Exh. cat. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan, 1965.

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.