Oil paint on canvas
Tate Collection
Works with images
General Collection
Collection
<a href="https://www.tate.org.uk/art/artists/andre-lhote-1506" aria-label="More by André Lhote" data-gtm-name="header_link_artist" data-gtm-destination="page--artist">André Lhote</a>
Homage to Watteau
Bequeathed by Frank Hindley Smith 1940
actions: expressive
adults
clothing and personal items
commedia dell’arte
dress: fantasy/fancy
embracing
fancy dress / role play
group
groups
harlequin
hat
leisure and pastimes
man
mask
music and entertainment
named individuals
objects
people
society
Watteau, Antoine
woman
painting oil paint canvas
Study for ‘Homage to Watteau’
support: 333 × 360 mm
Bequeathed by Frank Hindley Smith 1940
<p><b>André Lhote</b><span> 1885-1962 </span>
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<p><span><a class="acno-pop" data-gtm-destination="page--artwork" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="https://www.tate.org.uk/art/artworks/lhote-study-for-homage-to-watteau-n05073" title="View the details of this artwork"><span>N05073</span></a> </span><b>Study for 'Hommage à Watteau'</b><span> (Homage to Watteau) 1918 </span>
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<p><span>Inscribed 'A. LHOTE.' b.r.</span>
<br/><span>Oil on canvas mounted on plywood, 13 1/8 x 10 1/4 (33 x 26)</span>
<br/><span>Bequeathed by Frank Hindley Smith 1940</span>
<br/><i>Prov:</i><span>
With Galerie Druet, Paris (purchased from the artist); [?through Mansard Gallery, London]; Frank Hindley Smith, Southport</span>
<br/><i>Exh:</i><span>
[?</span><i>French Art 1914-19</i><span>, Mansard Gallery, London, August-September 1919 (130) as 'Sketch for "Homage to Watteau"'] </span>
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<p><span>The artist stated of this work (in a letter to W.J. Strachan of 10 July 1952): 'It is one of the sketches for "Homage to Watteau", a picture painted in 1918, measuring 1.20m x 0.9m, formerly collection Dorival ... The <a class="glossarylinktopopup" data-gtm-destination="article-page" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="http://www.tate.org.uk/learn/online-resources/glossary/p/painting" title="Glossary definition for 'Painting'"><span>painting</span></a> is at present in my possession. Some interesting sketches were made for it, that of the Tate Gallery is the least <a class="glossarylinktopopup" data-gtm-destination="article-page" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="http://www.tate.org.uk/learn/online-resources/glossary/a/abstract-art" title="Glossary definition for 'Abstract art'"><span>abstract</span></a>, the others are more simplified. My intention was in the final picture to divide the <a class="glossarylinktopopup" data-gtm-destination="article-page" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="http://www.tate.org.uk/learn/online-resources/glossary/c/canvas" title="Glossary definition for 'Canvas'"><span>canvas</span></a> into two parts on the diagonal, that with the harlequin treated as </span><i>flat</i><span>
and the other modelled, while preserving, of course, the unity of the <a class="glossarylinktopopup" data-gtm-destination="article-page" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="http://www.tate.org.uk/learn/online-resources/glossary/c/composition" title="Glossary definition for 'Composition'"><span>composition</span></a>. </span>
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<p><span>'The figure in the hat, leaning on the one who holds the mask, has </span><i>disappeared</i><span>.' </span>
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<p><span>Another, more finished oil sketch showing a slightly later stage and measuring 81 x 66cm is reproduced in colour in </span><i>Colour</i><span>, XI, December 1919, p.90 as 'Homage to Watteau'. The composition is very much the same, though more stylised and monumental; the most conspicuous change is that the harlequin's costume has a very pronounced diamond-shaped pattern of alternating greens and browns. It is not clear whether this was the picture exhibited at the Mansard Gallery in August 1919 as 'Sketch for "Homage to Watteau"'; it could well have been shown as no.121, 'Homage to Watteau', with the Tate's picture as no.130, the sketch. A <a class="glossarylinktopopup" data-gtm-destination="article-page" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="http://www.tate.org.uk/learn/online-resources/glossary/w/watercolour" title="Glossary definition for 'Watercolour'"><span>watercolour</span></a> in the Musée d'Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris (Girardin collection) shows a still later stage: the figure on the right has been omitted and the composition is more stylized and rhythmical. </span>
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<p><span>The theme of the 'commedia dell'arte' is particularly associated with Watteau. </span>
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<p><b>Published in:</b>
<br/><span>Ronald Alley, </span><i>Catalogue of the Tate Gallery's Collection of Modern Art other than Works by British Artists</i><span>, Tate Gallery and Sotheby Parke-Bernet, London 1981, pp.434-5, reproduced p.434 </span>
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Catalogue entry
2004-09-15T00:00:00
catalogue-entry
CATALOGUE_ENTRY
actions: expressive adults clothing and personal items commedia dell’arte dress: fantasy/fancy embracing fancy dress / role play group groups harlequin hat leisure and pastimes man mask music and entertainment named individuals objects people society Watteau, Antoine woman