Portrait of Antoine Watteau, 1721?

About the Work

Rosalba Carriera is famous above all for the portraits she executed in pastel. Inscriptions on the drawing’s old mounting identify the subject as the young Antoine Watteau (1684–1721). This assumption appears doubtful, since, according to the sources, Carriera did not meet the French Rococo painter until shortly before the latter’s death. It may, however, be a fantasy portrait made after an engraving. The contrast between the coloured pastels and the blue of the paper lend this unfinished work special charm.