# Mezzetin, in The French eighteenth century

Antoine Watteau painted this in about 1718–20, aged about 34. It is now at The Met in New York.

Our note:

> Mezzetin, a stock character of the Italian comedy, sits on a garden bench and sings to his guitar, head thrown back and eyes raised, his striped costume glowing against dark foliage. Behind him a stone statue of a woman turns her back, an ironic reply to his lovesick serenade.

[Read the full label](https://www.ochreeditions.com/art/mezzetin-met-437926#about-work)

## The work

- Date: ca. 1718–20
- Medium: Oil on canvas
- Dimensions: 21 3/4 x 17 in. (55.2 x 43.2 cm)
- Type: Paintings
- Courtesy of The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 34.138
- Licence: CC0 1.0

## The artist

[Antoine Watteau](https://www.ochreeditions.com/artists/antoine-watteau), French, 1684–1721

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.

4 works in the collection.

## Walk on

- [More by Antoine Watteau](https://www.ochreeditions.com/galleries/artist/antoine-watteau?hang=749) (4 works)
- [More paintings of the 18th century](https://www.ochreeditions.com/galleries/style/painting-18?hang=749) (168 works)
- [18th-century France](https://www.ochreeditions.com/galleries/era/18-france?hang=749) (75 works)

## Get it

- [Print this work](https://www.ochreeditions.com/art/mezzetin-met-437926#print)
- Free download, full resolution: https://img.ochreeditions.com/m/1176.jpg?dl=1
- [The work's page](https://www.ochreeditions.com/art/mezzetin-met-437926)