Standing Savoyarde with a Marmot Box

Standing Savoyarde with a Marmot Box

Antoine Watteau

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

Early in his career, before devoting himself to popular subjects of lovers, aristocrats, and commedia dell'arte figures, Watteau treated themes inspired by his Northern training: the hardships of military life and the travails of the lower classes. This sheet is one of around a dozen depicting Savoyards, natives of the region of Savoy, whose impoverished circumstances sometimes led them to take up an itinerant life as street performers. This elderly woman in ragged clothes leans on a cane and gazes off to the side. On her arm is strapped a box to hold a marmot, used as a form of street entertainment. Watteau records her with candor, first in red chalk, and then with sharp accents of black to pick out creases and shadows.

Drawings and Prints

An exhibit at Metropolitan Museum of Art

Standing Savoyarde with a Marmot BoxStanding Savoyarde with a Marmot BoxStanding Savoyarde with a Marmot BoxStanding Savoyarde with a Marmot BoxStanding Savoyarde with a Marmot Box

The Department’s vast collection of works on paper comprises approximately 21,000 drawings, 1.2 million prints, and 12,000 illustrated books created in Europe and the Americas from about 1400 to the present day. Since its foundation in 1916, the Department has been committed to collecting a wide range of works on paper, which includes both pieces that are incredibly rare and lauded for their aesthetic appeal, as well as material that is more popular, functional, and ephemeral. The broad scope of the department’s collecting encourages questions of connoisseurship as well as those pertaining to function and context, and demonstrates the vital role that prints, drawings, and illustrated books have played throughout history.