Four blind men and a boy playing musical instruments and singing. Etching by C. Du Bosc after A. Watteau.

  • Watteau, Antoine, 1684-1721.
Date:
1700-1799
Reference:
29501i
  • Pictures
  • Online

Selected images from this work

View 1 image

About this work

Description

Two men play the hurdygurdy, two seem to hold bagpipes under their coats, a boy plays the pipe and tambour. Some of them are blind. Probably members of the Quinze-Vingts, a hospice in Paris for blind people and their sighted relatives: they were notorious for their raucous street-music

Publication/Creation

[London]

Physical description

1 print : etching

Contributors

Lettering

The comical concert. Watteau del. Lettering on verso

References note

R. Weigel, Die Werke der Maler in ihren Handzeichnungen, Leipzig: R. Weigel, 1865, p. 736, no. 8599 ("Concert von fünf Musikanten, meist Blinde und Einäugige. Halbfiguren. The comical concert. Feder u. Bister. Du Bosc sc. Br. 11" 4", H. 6". Bartolozzi Prints II. 66; auch Italian School of Design 91")
Marcel Roux and Edmond Pognon, Inventaire du fonds français, graveurs du XVIIIe siècle, Bibliothèque nationale, Département des estampes, tome VII, Paris 1951, pp. 363, Dubosc no. 21 ("21. [The Comical Concert, eau-forte de Cl. Du Bosc portant la signature "Watteau De.", reproduction de la pl. 347 des Figures de différents caractères.] Goncourt, additions, p. 369. Dacier et Vuaflart, p. 141, pièce mentionnée mais non cataloguée ")

Reference

Wellcome Collection 29501i

Type/Technique

Languages

Subjects

Where to find it

  • LocationStatusAccess
    Closed stores

Permanent link