Pierrot Catching a Fly

Painting and Sculpture of Europe

1740/50

Attributed to Philippe Mercier
French, 1689-1760

Status: Currently Off View
Department: Painting and Sculpture of Europe

Artist: Philippe Mercier
Title: Pierrot Catching a Fly
Place: France (Artist's nationality:)
Date Dates are not always precisely known, but the Art Institute strives to present this information as consistently and legibly as possible. Dates may be represented as a range that spans decades, centuries, dynasties, or periods and may include qualifiers such as c. (circa) or BCE.: 1740–1750
Medium: Oil on canvas
Dimensions: 58.6 × 74 cm (23 1/16 × 29 1/8 in.)
Credit Line: Bequest of Mrs. Sterling Morton
Reference Number: 1969.333
IIIF Manifest The International Image Interoperability Framework (IIIF) represents a set of open standards that enables rich access to digital media from libraries, archives, museums, and other cultural institutions around the world. Learn more.: https://api.artic.edu/api/v1/artworks/31819/manifest.json

J[acques] Mathey, Antione Watteau: Peintures réapparues, inconnues, ou negligees par les historiens, identification par les dessins, chronologie (Paris, 1959), pp. 37–38, 77, no. 89, fig. 89.
Colnaghi and Company, Colnaghi’s, 1760–1960 (London and Bradford, 1960), fig. 45.
Ettore Camesasca and John Sunderland, The Complete Paintings of Watteau (New York, 1968), pp. 125, 128, no. 2°v, ill.
Art Institute of Chicago, The Art Institute of Chicago Annual Report 1969–1970 (Chicago, 1970), p. 24.
J[ohn] M[axon], “Mrs. Morton’s Bequest,” Calendar of the Art Institute of Chicago 64, 1 (1970), n. pag., fig. 1.
“La Chronique des arts: Musées et monuments historiques,” Gazette Beaux-Arts 6th ser., 76, suppl. to no. 1221 (1970), p. 4.
“Musées: Heureux centenaires,” Connaissance des arts 218 (1970), p. 7, ill.
“Recent Accessions of American and Canadian Museums, January–March 1970,” Art Quarterly 33, 3 (1970), p. 323.
“‘Torero’ Among Art Institute Additions,” Chicago Tribune (February 24, 1970), p. B1.
Review of Ettore Camesasca and John Sunderland, The Complete Paintings of Watteau, in Times Literary Supplement no. 3626 (August 27, 1971), p. 1019.
Jean Ferré, et al., Watteau (Madrid, 1972), vol. 1., p. 33; vol. 4, pp. 1110, 1118.
John D. Morse, Old Master Paintings in North America (New York, 1979), p. 298.
André Chastel, “De la ‘burla’ au ‘lazzo della mosca’,” in Scritti in onore di Giuliano Briganti (Milan, 1990), pp. 236, 240 n. 13, fig. 3.
Susan Wise, in Susan Wise and Malcolm Warner, French and British Paintings from 1600 to 1800 in The Art Institute of Chicago (Chicago, 1996), pp. 101–04, ill.
M. A. Katritzky, Healing, Performance and Ceremony in the Writings of Three Early Modern Physicians: Hippolytus Guarinonius and the Brothers Felix and Thomas Platter (Farnham, Surrey and Burlington Vermont, 2012), p. 254, n. 47.

Art Institute of Chicago, Selected Works of 18th Century French Art in the Collections of the Art Institute of Chicago, January 24–April 25, 1976, no. 3, as Watteau, Pantaloon Catching a Fly.

Noel Hill, first baron Berwick (died 1789), Attingham Hall, near Shrewsbury, Shropshire [according to Watson 1971]; by descent to Thomas Noel Hill, second baron Berwick (died 1832); Berwick sale, Attingham Hall, August 6, 1827, no. 23, as Watteau, Pantaloon, in the act of catching a Fly upon his hand, to Thomas Kenyon (died 1851) [buyer according to a label removed from the back of the stretcher, preserved in the conservation file]; by descent to Lt. Col. Herbert Edward Kenyon, Pradoe, Oswestry, Shropshire [according to a Colnaghi label removed from the back of the stretcher, preserved in the conservation file]. Christie’s, London, November 23, 1956, no. 97, as Watteau, to Arcade Gallery, London, for £400 [price and buyer according to an annotated sale catalogue in Ryerson Library, Art Institute; according to a letter from Monika Wengraf, Arcade Gallery, to Mary Kuzniar dated June 2, 1981, in curatorial file, Arcade Gallery listed the picture in their records as by Mercier]; sold to Colnaghi, London, as Watteau, 1957 [according to the letter cited above]; sold to Sterling Morton, Chicago, 1959 [according to a letter from Grizelda Grimond, Colnaghi, to Susan Wise dated April 8, 1981, in curatorial file]; Mrs. Sterling Morton (died 1969); bequeathed to the Art Institute, 1969.

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Date Dates are not always precisely known, but the Art Institute strives to present this information as consistently and legibly as possible. Dates may be represented as a range that spans decades, centuries, dynasties, or periods and may include qualifiers such as c. (circa) or BCE.

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Date Dates are not always precisely known, but the Art Institute strives to present this information as consistently and legibly as possible. Dates may be represented as a range that spans decades, centuries, dynasties, or periods and may include qualifiers such as c. (circa) or BCE.

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IIIF Manifest The International Image Interoperability Framework (IIIF) represents a set of open standards that enables rich access to digital media from libraries, archives, museums, and other cultural institutions around the world.

Learn more.