Actor Philippe Poisson in peasant costume - Watteau
Description
He is the grandson of Raymond Poisson, creator of the Crispin character on the French scene.
3. This drawing served as the original model for one of the engravings in Watteau's collection of Figures françoises et comiques (See also Figures of various characters, landscapes and studies drawn after nature by A. Watteau, t. II, pl. 202.). The engraving's caption, "Poisson en habit de païsan", identifies the character. In the Poisson family, two actors were performing on stage at the time, Paul, who was already elderly, and his son Philippe, born in 1682.
An actor with the same figure and costume appears on an etching by Caylus (Suite de figures inventées par Watteau) under the name Blaize. It would therefore be the miller Blaize, in Dancourt's Les Trois cousines, who would have inspired Watteau's paintings on the theme of Cythère.
Also to be related to Deplaces' engravings after Watteau depicting characters from the Trois cousines, published in 1710. Poisson retired in 1711 but returned to the stage in 1715, leaving it for good in 1722.
Technical Data
Notice #024981
