The Clothes are Italian (1715–16): Art, History and Details

The Clothes are Italian (1715–16) is in the Cleveland Museum of Art collection. The museum's creator attribution is Jean-Antoine Watteau (French, 1684–1721).

The work and its context

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

Actors dressed as stock characters from the Italian commedia dell’arte and the French popular theater take their final bow in this print. Known for their comic plots and improvisational satire, the Italian players were banned in France from 1697 until 1716 after one of their productions was thought to criticize King Louis XIV’s mistress. Still in demand with French audiences, some of the characters and stories were adapted into the less regulated popular performances. The sense of whimsy and play associated with this form of theater is mirrored by the spontaneity and freedom of the artist's etched lines.

Object facts

• Title: The Clothes are Italian
• Date: 1715–16
• Creator attribution: Jean-Antoine Watteau (French, 1684–1721)
• Culture: France
• Type: Print
• Technique: etching
• Dimensions: Image and Plate: 27.5 x 20 cm (10 13/16 x 7 7/8 in.); Sheet: 30 x 20.9 cm (11 13/16 x 8 1/4 in.)
• Collection: PR - Etching
• Department: Prints
• Accession number: 2008.3

A detail from the museum

Jean-Antoine Watteau’s compositions often reference theater and music.

Collection credit

Severance and Greta Millikin Purchase Fund

Further reading listed by the museum

• Cleveland Museum of Art. The CMA Companion: A Guide to the Cleveland Museum of Art. Cleveland: Cleveland Museum of Art, 2014.

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.