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Clusters of festival people are gathered outside with a stage on the left, in eighteenth century attire.

A boat carrying many people, including a man in a carriage with four horses, sits at the edge of the shore on the lower left. The stage is lightly and loosely drawn on the left top. People are gathered in clusters, some on a horse milling about, they’re drawn in slightly more detail than those in the background. People are also gathered on a stone arch on the top right. Trees are loosely drawn in the background with ink wash, which also defines the water’s edge in foreground.

Identification and Creation

Object Number
1991.240
People
Claude Gillot, French (Langres 1673 - 1722 Paris)
Title
Fête Galante; verso: Theater Scene
Other Titles
Former Title: Embarkation for the Island of Cythera; verso: Fête Galante in Asian Costume
Classification
Drawings
Work Type
drawing
Date
c. 1700
Culture
French
Persistent Link
https://hvrd.art/o/312173

Physical Descriptions

Medium
Black ink, two tones of gray wash, and traces of white gouache on off-white antique laid paper, framing lines in brown ink; verso: black ink and gray wash
Dimensions
20.7 x 31.7 cm (8 1/8 x 12 1/2 in.)
Inscriptions and Marks
  • inscription: verso, center, graphite: 4

Provenance

Recorded Ownership History
Mr. and Mrs. Eliot Hodgkin, sold [through their sale, Sotheby’s, London,October 21, 1963, lot 136]. [Colnaghi, London]. Regina Thurlimann and Freddy Homburger, Brookline, by 1963, gift; to Harvard University Art Museums, 1991

Acquisition and Rights

Credit Line
Harvard Art Museums/Fogg Museum, Gift of Regina T. and Freddy Homburger in honor of Agnes Mongan
Accession Year
1991
Object Number
1991.240
Division
European and American Art
Contact
am_europeanamerican@harvard.edu
Permissions

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Publication History

  • Agnes Mongan, ed., Selections from the Collection of Freddy and Regina T. Homburger: A Loan Exhibition, exh. cat., Fogg Art Museum (Cambridge, 1971), cat. no. 53a and 53b, pp. 118-20, 188
  • Pierre Rosenberg, French Master Drawings of the 17th & 18th Centuries in North American Collections / Dessins français du 17ème & du 18ème siècles des collections américaines, exh. cat., Secker & Warburg (London, 1972-1973), cat. no. 56, pp. 62, 163
  • Dewey F. Mosby, “Claude Gillot’s “Embarkation for the Isle of Cythera” and its Relationship to Watteau", Master Drawings, Master Drawings Association (New York, 1974), vol. 12, no. 1, Spring, pp. 49-56, 102-103, pp. 49-56
  • Donald Posner, Antoine Watteau, Weidenfeld & Nicolson (London, 1984), p. 287-n.124
  • Margaret Morgan Grasselli, Pierre Rosenberg, and Nicole Parmantier, Watteau, 1684-1721, exh. cat., National Gallery of Art and Editions de la Réunion des Musées Nationaux (Washington and Paris, 1984), pp. 262-63
  • Margret Stuffmann and Hildegard Bauereisen, Französische Zeichnungen im Städelschen Kunstinstitut, 1550 bis 1800, exh. cat., Die Städtische Galerie (Frankfurt, 1986), p. 84
  • Mary Louise Ennis, "The Voyage to Cythera: From Courtly Allegory to Erotic Utopia in French Literature, 1700-1750" (1989), Yale University, pp. 113, 117 (mistakenly cited as executed in red chalk)
  • Marianne Roland Michel, “Un ‘maitre’ et ses élèves, ou pour une approche de Gillot", Mélanges en Hommage à Pierre Rosenberg: peintures et dessins en France et en Italie, XVIIe–XVIIIe siècles, ed. Anna Ottani Cavina, Réunion des Musées Nationaux (Paris, 2001), pp. 390-99, pp. 393-94
  • Giorgia Cowart, “Watteau’s ‘Pilgrimage to Cythera’ and the Subversive Utopia of the Opera-Ballet", The Art Bulletin, College Art Association of America (Providence, 2001), p. 469
  • Jennifer Tonkovich, "Claude Gillot and the Theater with a Catalogue of Drawings" (2002), Rutgers University, vol. 1, cat. no. 29, pp. 156, 170, 264, 275-81, vol. 2, p. 535
  • Patrick Ramade, ed., Watteau et la fête galante, exh. cat., Réunion des Musées Nationaux (Paris, 2004), p. 130
  • Giorgia Cowart, The Triumph of Pleasure: Louis XIV & the Politics of Spectacle, University of Chicago Press (Chicago, 2008), pp. 227-28
  • Christoph Martin Vogtherr, Mary Tavener Holmes, and Groupe les Echos, De Watteau à Fragonard: les fêtes galantes, exh. cat. (Paris, 2014), p. 87
  • Michiel C. Plomp and Martin Sonnabend, Watteau der Zeichner, exh. cat., Städel Museum (Frankfurt, 2016), pp. 85, 228
  • Alvin L. Clark, Jr. and Edouard Kopp, French Drawings from the Age of Claude, Poussin, Watteau, and Fragonard: Highlights from the Collection of the Harvard Art Museums, Harvard Art Museums (Cambridge, MA, 2022), cat. no. 50, repr.; detail repr. p. 149, verso repr. p. 148
  • Jennifer Tonkovich, Claude Gillot: Satire in the Age of Reason, exh. cat., The Morgan Library & Museum (New York, 2023), cat. no. 55, p. 167, fig. 5.28

Exhibition History

  • Selections from the Collection of Freddy and Regina T. Homburger: A Loan Exhibition, Fogg Art Museum, 04/02/1971 - 04/24/1971
  • French Master Drawings of the 17th & 18th Centuries in North American Collections, Art Gallery of Ontario, Toronto, 09/02/1972 - 10/15/1972; National Gallery of Canada, Ottawa, 11/03/1972 - 12/17/1972; California Palace of the Legion of Honor, San Francisco, 01/12/1973 - 03/11/1973; New York Cultural Center, New York, 04/04/1973 - 05/13/1973
  • Claude Gillot: Satire in the Age of Reason, The Morgan Library & Museum, 02/24/2023 - 05/28/2023

Verification Level

This record has been reviewed by the curatorial staff but may be incomplete. Our records are frequently revised and enhanced. For more information please contact the Division of European and American Art at am_europeanamerican@harvard.edu