Costumed Dancers Performing in a Garden Tavern
1756
Gabriel de Saint-Aubin
Gabriel de Saint-Aubin (French, 1724–1780)
Drawings
Costumed Dancers Performing in a Garden Tavern, 1756. Gabriel de Saint-Aubin (French, 1724–1780). Brush and brown and gray wash, with gouache, watercolor, and traces of graphite; sheet: 19.8 x 31.3 cm (7 13/16 x 12 5/16 in.); secondary support: 19.8 x 31.3 cm (7 13/16 x 12 5/16 in.). The Cleveland Museum of Art, Purchase from the J. H. Wade Fund 1966.124 Gabriel de Saint-Aubin was known for his rapidly executed, sketchy style, often used to depict performances and social scenes. The exaggerated lifted legs of the dancers seen here imply a comic, theatrical style; no social dance during the 18th century would have permitted such pronounced gestures, especially for a woman. Both dancers wear jackets with irregular hemlines decorated with round bells similar to those found on jesters’ costumes. The lanterns and swags of flowers strung from trees and the small orchestra playing on the right suggest a guinguette, or outdoor tavern with a pleasure garden. Gabriel de Saint-Aubin reused the female dancer in another drawing from 1760.
- Maker/Artist
- Saint-Aubin, Gabriel de
- Classification
- Drawing
- Formatted Medium
- brush and brown and gray wash, with gouache, watercolor, and traces of graphite
- Dimensions
- Sheet: 19.8 x 31.3 cm (7 13/16 x 12 5/16 in.); Secondary Support: 19.8 x 31.3 cm (7 13/16 x 12 5/16 in.)
- Inscribed
- Inscription: lower left, in brown ink: 17[60?]; lower left, in graphite: G de St Aubin [partially cut off]; verso, visible through transmitted light, lower left: [aif?]; lower left: Fragonard; lower right: 22 / [illegible] / 22; verso of secondary support, center, in graphite: N
- Departments
- Drawings
- Accession Number
- 1966.124
- Credit Line
- Purchase from the J. H. Wade Fund
- Exhibitions
- Golden Anniversary of Acquisitions, French Master Drawings of the 17th and 18th Centuries in North American Collections, Prints and Drawings by Gabriel de Saint-Aubin, 1724-1780, Northern European Drawings from the Cleveland Museum of Art, National Schools of Style, Treasures on Paper, Rococo, Revolution, Restoration, French Drawings from the Collection, Master Drawings from the Cleveland Museum of Art, Gabriel de Saint-Aubin, Themes and Variations: Musical Drawings and Prints, <em>French Painting, 1100-1900</em>. Carnegie Institute, Department of Fine Arts, Pittsburgh, PA (October 18 - December 2, 1951)., <em>The Stage: A Loan Exhibition for the Benefit of the Public Education Association</em>. Jacques Seligmann & Co, Inc., New York (April 3 - April 22, 1939).
- Rights Statement
- CC0
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