Claude Gillot Langres 1673 - 1722 Paris

Mme. Elisabeth Wildenstein, Paris, 1931;
With Galerie Pardo, Paris, 1970;
Anonymous sale, Christie's, New York, January 12, 1996, lot 337 (as circle of Gillot);
Anonymous sale, Christie's, New York, October 26, 2001, lot 318 (as by Gillot).

This is a rare, surviving oil painting by Gillot whose body of  work is known now mostly through his numerous drawings and prints.  Though best known today as the teacher of Antoine Watteau, Gillot was recognized by his contemporaries as a talented and innovative painter. Other paintings which can be ascribed to him with certainty are his reception piece for the Académie, Nailing of Christ to the Cross (Noailles, Corrèze, parish church) and two commedia dell'Arte scenes, Les Deux Carrosses and Le Tombeau de maître André, both in the Musée du Louvre, Paris.

An ink drawing by Gillot, titled Mascarade and datable to 1705-10, in the collection of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, includes a frieze of musicians in the background that is almost identical to the grouping of musicians in the center background of the present work.  Another version of this composition is in the Musée de Châteauroux in the Hôtel Bernard, Châteauroux, France.