# The Old Savoyard

**Antoine Watteau** (French, 1684–1721)  
c. 1715  
Red and black chalk on cream laid paper  
35.9 × 22.1 cm (14 3/16 × 8 3/4 in.)

Courtesy of the Art Institute of Chicago, 1964.74. [The museum's record](https://www.artic.edu/artworks/20432).

## About this work

An elderly, bearded man carries a crate and pack on his back, sketched from life in red and black chalk. He is a Savoyard, one of the poor itinerant performers from the Alpine region of Savoy who tramped the streets of Paris with peep-show boxes or performing marmots. Watteau often drew such street figures, and his use of two or three colours of chalk, here modelling the weathered face and heavy clothing, became one of the most admired drawing techniques of the eighteenth century.

_Written by Ochre Editions._

Antoine Watteau painted this in about 1715, aged about 26. It is now at the Art Institute of Chicago.

### What you’re looking at

Chalk drawing with red and black shading of man carrying crate and pack.

_Description from the Art Institute of Chicago._

### How it was made

- **Chalk.** Natural black, red and white chalks. Used together on toned paper they could give the warmth of flesh with very little effort, and they were favourites for studies from life.
- **Laid paper.** Handmade on a mould of close-set wires, which leave fine parallel lines you can see when the sheet is held to the light.

### [Antoine Watteau](https://www.ochreeditions.com/artists/antoine-watteau)

French, 1684–1721; born in Valenciennes; died in Nogent-sur-Marne

Watteau came to Paris from Valenciennes, worked with the theatre painter Claude Gillot and the decorator Claude Audran, and studied Rubens’s Medici cycle at the Luxembourg Palace. In 1717 the Academy received him with a new category, the fête galante, for his Pilgrimage to Cythera: elegant figures in parkland, often in theatre costume, touched with melancholy. His chalk drawings, frequently in red, black and white, are among the finest of the century. He died of tuberculosis at thirty-six.

_Written by Ochre Editions._

## Facts

- Type: Drawing and Watercolor
- Culture: France
- The artist was about 26
- Real size: about 14 × 8½ in (35 × 22 cm). The 11 × 14 in print is close to life size.
- Century: 18th century
- Subjects: Savoy, men, poverty, performers, beards
- Colour: brown
- Rights: public domain (CC0 1.0); free to use for any purpose.

## Get it

- Free download, full resolution: https://img.ochreeditions.com/m/75.jpg?dl=1
- Image: https://img.ochreeditions.com/a/75/1920.jpg
- Giclée reproduction on Hahnemühle Photo Rag: 8 × 10 in $28; 11 × 14 in $38; 12 × 16 in $42; 16 × 20 in $56; 18 × 24 in $68; 20 × 30 in $86; 24 × 36 in $108; 30 × 40 in $148
- Framed reproduction: 8 × 10 in $78; 11 × 14 in $98; 12 × 16 in $108; 16 × 20 in $138; 18 × 24 in $164; 20 × 30 in $208; 24 × 36 in $258; 30 × 40 in $338
- Canvas reproduction: 8 × 10 in $58; 11 × 14 in $72; 12 × 16 in $79; 16 × 20 in $98; 18 × 24 in $118; 20 × 30 in $148; 24 × 36 in $178; 30 × 40 in $228
- Print-ready file: 8 × 10 in $2; 11 × 14 in $2; 12 × 16 in $3; 16 × 20 in $3; 18 × 24 in $3; 20 × 30 in $5; 24 × 36 in $5; 30 × 40 in $5

Sizes stop where the museum's file would print below 150 pixels per inch. Everything sold is a reproduction, made to order. [Order a print](https://www.ochreeditions.com/art/the-old-savoyard-aic-20432).