# Study for "The Romancer" (Le Conteur)

- By: Jean-Antoine Watteau (French, 1684–1721)
- Date: c. 1716
- Medium: red chalk; red and black chalk (upper left figure)
- Classification: Drawing
- Dimensions: Sheet: 35 x 27.5 cm (13 3/4 x 10 13/16 in.); Secondary Support: 35.1 x 27.8 cm (13 13/16 x 10 15/16 in.)
- Culture: France
- Credit line: Dudley P. Allen Fund
- Museum: [Cleveland Museum of Art](https://clevelandart.org/art/1928.661)
- Rights: [Public domain (CC0)](https://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/)
- Picture: https://openaccess-cdn.clevelandart.org/1928.661/1928.661_web.jpg
- Who can see it: Teens profiles and older (museums give no ratings; placed by Invisible Network from the museum's own words)

This sheet was a preparatory study for the painting The Romancer. An actor in the costume of Mezzetin, a stock character of the commedia dell’arte (a type of satirical theatrical entertainment of Italian origin popular in aristocratic circles in 18th-century France), interrupts a guitarist with a bold sexual advance. Another actor dressed as the French pantomime stock character Pierrot peers lasciviously over the young musician’s shoulder. A more detailed study of Pierrot’s head occupies the upper left corner of the sheet, demonstrating Jean Antoine Watteau’s experimentation with how to most effectively depict a lecherous gaze.