The Sign (L'Enseigne)
c. 1732
18th C.
Europe, France
20-3/8 x 33 in. (51.8 x 83.8 cm) (plate)
By (primary)
Pierre-Alexandre Aveline
French, 1702–1760
After
Jean-Antoine Watteau
French, 1684–1721
Medium:
Etching and engraving
Credit Line:
Robert E. and Mary B. P. Gross Fund
Accession Number:
2011.17
Object Label
Elizabeth Kathleen Mitchell, Ph.D., Burton and Deedee McMurtry Curator and Director of the Curatorial Fellowship Program, Iris & B. Gerald Cantor Center for Visual Arts at Stanford University:
Pierre-Alexandre Aveline made this print after one of Jean-Antoine Watteau’s last paintings, The Gersaint Signboard (1720). It is a fantastical imagining of Edme François Gersaint’s (France, 1694–1750) Paris shop, at which he sold paintings, prints, and other luxury goods. At right, porters load a Baroque portrait of the former king, Louis the XIV (France, 1638–1715). The fashionably dressed shoppers turn their backs on the portrait and the old master paintings on the walls. Instead, they examine a new rococo painting of frolicking nudes; others gaze at themselves, or secretively at each other, in the mirrors.
Provenance
A private French collection; R. Stanley Johnson (dealer), Chicago, IL.
Bibliography
Dacier, Émile and Albert Vuaflart. “Jean de Jullienne et les graveurs de Watteau au XVIIIe siècle.” Vols. I-IV. (Paris: Pour les membres de la Société, 1921-29). Cat. no. 115 iii/iii.;
Sahut, Marie-Catherine and Florence Raymond. “Antoine Watteau et l'art de l'estampe.” Exh cat. [request NE650 .W38 A4 2010](Paris: Musée du Louvre, 2010). Cat. no. 39.;
Included in the Google Art Project website starting on 4/3/2013;
Keywords
Click a term to view the records with the same keyword
shopping
Seeking or examining merchandise or property offered for sale, especially but not exclusively by visiting shops. [August 1993 descriptor added.]
mirrors
Use for objects with a highly polished surface, often framed, which are designed to reflect images.
paintings
Use for unique works in which images are formed primarily by the direct application of pigments, arranged in masses of color, onto a generally two-dimensional surface. [July 1994 alternate term changed, was 'painting'.]
shop signs
Use broadly for signs identifying places of business. [June 1992 descriptor added.]
Portfolio List
Click a portfolio name to view all the objects in that portfolio
This object is a member of the following portfolios:
by Artist
by Artist