The Italian Comedians

Watteau had less than two years to live when he painted this, worn down by the tuberculosis that would kill him in 1721. In 1719 he had crossed to London partly to consult a celebrated doctor, and it did him no good. Back in France he painted a troupe of Italian comedians, the commedia dell'arte players who had only lately been allowed back into Paris after 20 years of official banishment. They stand in a row as if for a curtain call, Pierrot in white at the center catching all the light, the others leaning in from the shadow around him. Watteau had spent his short career inventing scenes of players and lovers in parkland, half theatre and half daydream. Here the actors step forward and simply present themselves, faces out to whoever is watching.