The Rommelpot Player

French (?)|Antoine Watteau

18th century · Red chalk · Robert Lehman Collection

This drawing was probably executed in France at a time when the vogue for seventeenth-century Dutch painting inspired French artists to cultivate their own approach to subjects of everyday life. Rommelpot players appear in Dutch genre pictures as quirky companions to butchers at work or more frequently as entertainers in scenes of casual revelry. Made from a pig’s bladder, the rommelpot produced a loud squeal. More of a noisemaker than a musical instrument, it was mostly used by children; accordingly, this drawing, now cut down, once shared the sheet with a sketch of a little girl at right apparently dancing to the “tune” of the rommelpot.

Artist

French (?)|Antoine Watteau

Date

18th century

Medium

Red chalk

Department

Robert Lehman Collection

Credit line

Robert Lehman Collection, 1975