Accession number
PML 198162, fol. 89
Creator
Gillot, Claude, 1673-1722, printmaker.
Published
[Paris] : [Chez Vanheck], [between 1716 and 1718?]
Credit line
Purchased on the Gordon N. Ray Fund, 2018.
Notes
Caption title from finished state.
Finished state signed "Gillot pinx. et Sculp.", with imprint reading "A Paris chez Vanheck"; lettered with caption title and 6 lines of verse in two columns.
1st state, before all letters.
One of a series of four prints by Gillot, known under the title "Scènes comiques du théâtre Italien"; tentatively dated by Populus 1716-1718.
Forms part of a collection of 586 etchings by and after Claude Gillot, mounted into a bound album by a former owner, with letterpress title page reading "Oeuvres de Gillot." (see PML 198162).
Library's copy trimmed to platemark.
Finished state signed "Gillot pinx. et Sculp.", with imprint reading "A Paris chez Vanheck"; lettered with caption title and 6 lines of verse in two columns.
1st state, before all letters.
One of a series of four prints by Gillot, known under the title "Scènes comiques du théâtre Italien"; tentatively dated by Populus 1716-1718.
Forms part of a collection of 586 etchings by and after Claude Gillot, mounted into a bound album by a former owner, with letterpress title page reading "Oeuvres de Gillot." (see PML 198162).
Library's copy trimmed to platemark.
Description
1 print : etching ; image: 168 x 223 mm; sheet: 200 x 235 mm
Provenance
Acquired in Paris by Henry Fiennes Pelham-Clinton (1720-1794), Duke of Newcastle, Clumber Library, ca. 1750 (his arms on the front cover); by descent until his library was dispersed at Christie's, London, in four parts between 21 June 1937 and 14 February 1938; Fernand Pouillon (1912-1986), Jardin de Flore, Paris, Cent livres illustrés du XV au XX siècle (1977), item 40; Librarie Fernand de Nobele, Paris, Livres sur les beaux-arts, les arts decoratifs et les objets de collection, bibliographie, imprimerie (1981), lot no. 39204; André Jammes (b. 1927), Paris; sale, Paris, Hotel Drouot, 28 November 2018, lot 3.
Summary
Print shows a scene from a commedia dell'arte comedy featuring trick props and onstage pyrotechnics; Scaramouche, Mezzetino, and Polichinelle are seated around a table on three benches which have been suddenly lifted above the stage as Harlequin, at far right, touches a wand to a dish at the center of the table, igniting a small explosion which has sent the other three characters shooting upwards on sliding poles attached to the legs of the benches and emerging from the floor of the stage.
Classification
Catalog link
Department