Description
Circle of Charles-André van Loo (Nice 1705 – Paris 1765) – Allegory of Comedy.
Oil on canvas, in carved and gilded wooden frame.
The work reproduces the painting by Charles-André van Loo (Nice 1705 – Paris 1765) in the Pushkin Museum, Moscow.
Charles-André van Loo, known as Carle van Loo, was one of the leading figures of eighteenth-century French painting, First Painter to King Louis XV and a central presence at the Académie royale. His output ranges from large-scale historical and religious compositions to mythological and allegorical subjects, consistently marked by refined draughtsmanship and an elegant treatment of the figure. The painting follows the autograph composition of 1753 now in the Pushkin Museum, Moscow, executed by van Loo on commission from the Marquise de Pompadour, favourite of Louis XV, for her château de Bellevue, as a pendant to the Allegory of Tragedy. The female figure is seated on architectural steps, crowned with ivy and dressed in light-toned robes, holding a black theatrical mask and raising a drapery with her right arm — conventional attributes of the Allegory of Comedy. At her feet, masks, a sheet of music, and a wind instrument complete the iconography. To the right, two putti — one of them blowing a horn — enliven the composition with playful spontaneity. The luminous palette and the soft handling of the drapery point securely to the Parisian Rococo milieu of the first half of the eighteenth century.
Condition report: Lined canvas. Good state of conservation of the painted surface.
