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Source Description
This drawing, by caricaturist Paul Gavarni, presents a character from pantomime and festival culture. Called Pierrot, he is recognizable by his comically ill-fitting clothes and was popular in performances during Gavarni's lifetime. The artist drew Pierrot several times late in his career, often adding humorous captions, which likely related to his work in printmaking and illustration.
Scholar Source Context
Document identity
localId
105769
label
Pierrot
core
obj
dtoType
drawing
pageCount
1
Source metadata
id
105769
contentType
drawing
title
Pierrot
description
This drawing, by caricaturist Paul Gavarni, presents a character from pantomime and festival culture. Called Pierrot, he is recognizable by his comically ill-fitting clothes and was popular in performances during Gavarni's lifetime. The artist drew Pierrot several times late in his career, often adding humorous captions, which likely related to his work in printmaking and illustration.
date
c. 1850–60
rights
CC0
rightsUri
CC0
language
en
wikidata
Q79891724
creators
6851
genreSpecific
Drawing
imageCount
1
source
import
dimensionsRaw
Sheet: 31.8 x 21 cm (12 1/2 x 8 1/4 in.)
cul
France, 19th century
accession
1923.854
Source extras
tec
watercolor heightened with white gouache on off-white wove paper
tombstone
Pierrot, c. 1850–60. Paul Gavarni (French, 1804–1866). Watercolor heightened with white gouache on off-white wove paper; sheet: 31.8 x 21 cm (12 1/2 x 8 1/4 in.). The Cleveland Museum of Art, Dudley P. Allen Fund, 1923.854
supportMaterials
description
off-white wove paper
collection
DR - French
inscriptions
inscription
Inscribed, lower right, in red wash: Gavarni; lower left, in red wash: Les femmes sont farces!
didYouKnow
Around the time that Paul Gavarni made this drawing, he also created a series of prints called <em>School of the Pierrots </em>(1851–53), which chronicled the character's misadventures.
citations
citation
T. S. "An Exhibition of Drawings." <em>The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art</em> 11, no. 7 (1924): 140-44.
page_number
Mentioned: p. 124; Reproduced: on cover
citation
The Cleveland Museum of Art. <em>Handbook of the Cleveland Museum of Art</em>. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1925.
page_number
Reproduced: p. 45
citation
<em>French Watercolors, 1760–1860</em>. Exh. cat. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan, 1965.
page_number
Mentioned: no. 50
citation
Salsbury, Britany. <em>Nineteenth-Century French Drawings: The Cleveland Museum of Art</em>. Lewes, UK, Cleveland, Ohio: GILES; Cleveland Museum of Art, 2023.
page_number
Mentioned and reproduced: p. 96-97, no. 9
creditline
Dudley P. Allen Fund
updatedAt
2026-05-29 05:41:26.406000
sourceId
105769
dept
Drawings
coll
DR - French
med
watercolor heightened with white gouache on off-white wove paper
creatorTags
male
thumbnail_url
image_url
Single page context
seq
1
pageIndex
0
type
photo
mediaId
6d5fd2d25e4f29c5