Louvre puts the focus on Watteau’s enigmatic “Pierrot”

From October 16th, 2024 to  February 3rd, 2025, the Louvre Museum presents an exhibition focused on Antoine Watteau’s enigmatic “Pierrot (Gilles)”

Source: Louvre · Image: Antoine Watteau, “Pierrot (Gilles)” (detail). Paris, Louvre

“The enigmatic painting of the Louvre par excellence.”: This is how painter and writer Bernard Dufour described Pierrot, long known as Gilles, by Antoine Watteau (1684-1721). Beyond the familiar and iconic figure of this strange character dressed in white, the painting is indeed one of absolute uniqueness. Everything about it, from its history to its composition, including its iconography and format, intrigues and questions.

The origins of the canvas remain completely unknown, and its first certain mention dates only to 1826. The interpretation of the painting, inspired by the world of theater and notably by Pierrot, the most famous comedic character of the time, also remains complex.

Thanks to the restoration by the Centre de recherche et de restauration des musées de France (C2RMF) that has just returned the painting to its full splendor, the Louvre museum is dedicating an exhibition to it, which is the monograph it deserved. The exhibition examines this mysterious masterpiece by placing it in the context of early 18th-century theatrical life and in relation to the works of Watteau and his contemporaries.

Not forgetting to explore the constant and fruitful fascination that Gilles has exerted up to today on creators from all horizons, from Fragonard to Picasso, including Nadar, Derain, or Marcel Carné: painters, writers, actors, photographers, or filmmakers – each has, with talent, attempted to unravel its captivating enigma.

The exhibition brings together sixty-five works (paintings, drawings, engravings, books, photographs, and film excerpts), including seven paintings by Watteau, thanks to the support of numerous French, European, and American museums, such as the Bibliothèque nationale de France, the Gemäldegalerie in Berlin, the Wallace Collection, and the National Gallery of Art in Washington.

An eternal blank page, despite its countless interpretations, Pierrot remains a comedian without a line and a painting without equal.