Jean-Baptiste-Marie Pierre (1714–1789), Le Misanthrope, Act II, scene IV, ca. 1750–55
, Pen and black ink, brush and gray wash, over black chalk, heightened with white gouache, on blue paperPurchased as the gift of Joan Taub Ades and on the Lois and Walter C. Baker Fund
, 2006.5
This highly finished drawing illustrates a scene from one of Molière's most famous comedies, Le Misanthrope, a play set in the fashionable milieu of seventeenth-century Paris. Alceste, the title character, is disgusted by the hypocrisy, injustice, and overall corruption of human society. Nonetheless, he is in love with Célimène, a young, flirtatious widow who is a prime example of the insincerity that Alceste despises. The drawing is one of three known drawings by Pierre after Molière's works.