Pierrot

c. 1718–19

Oil on canvas, 72 1/2 × 61 1/4 in. Musée du Louvre, Paris

A stock clown from the comedy stage, painted life-size and dead centre, is given a face as particular as any portrait.

Look at

The figure is a white column from collar to shoes, under a round tan hat, arms hanging, planted on the front edge with nothing to do.
Everyone else is pushed below his waist into a strip of four heads and a donkey, so the white figure floats above them.
The white is many whites — cool in the folds, warm cream on the sleeves — so the costume reads as satin.

Found by a dealer under Napoleon and bought by Vivant Denon around 1805 for 150 francs; La Caze bequeathed it to the Louvre in 1869.
Restored in 2023–24; the Louvre now titles it Pierrot rather than Gilles.

Image: Wikimedia Commons · Public domain