Jean-Antoine Watteau, 'The Scale of Love', probably 1717-8

The Scale of Love

Jean-Antoine Watteau

Room 35

About the work

Overview

This picture is a fine example of Watteau’s work on an intimate scale. The title The Scale of Love (La Gamme d’Amour) comes from a print of it made several years after his death. It may be a reference to the musical scale, to the various stages of flirting and seduction, or to the music which facilitates these. The word gamme had other secondary meanings, such as knowledge, ability and custom, perhaps reinforcing the notion here of love or seduction as a skill. The sculpted bust is possibly Pythagoras, who is credited with discovering a musical scale based upon a mathematical ratio.

Watteau may have chosen the man’s fantasy theatrical costume to poetically distance the scene from his own time. The painting shows his skill in composition and as a colourist, with its warm harmonies of pink, red and russet brown.

In-depth

Scenes of couples making music have a long tradition in European art, especially in Northern and Venetian painting. The subject was also a familiar one in pastoral poetry, and the associations between Watteau’s paintings, music and poetry were recognised by his contemporaries.

The guitarist here is dressed in a theatrical costume. Watteau may have chosen its old-fashioned style to distance the scene from his own time. The woman’s informal clothing is not specific to any period, so it also helps set the scene in an undefined time. She looks at the guitarist’s left hand as he is about to play a note, their collaboration on the musical score perhaps providing an opportunity for flirting. The portrayal of the couple also shows Watteau’s skill in composition and as a colourist – look, for example, at the diagonal that runs upwards from the woman’s foot, across the musical score and along the neck of the guitar and at the warm harmonies of pinks, reds and russet browns.

At the top of the picture, Watteau has included a herm (a squared stone pillar mounted by a carved head that often served as a signpost or boundary marker). The bearded man may be Pythagoras, who is credited with discovering a musical scale based upon a mathematical ratio. A reference to Pythagoras would relate to the title of the painting, which comes from a print of it made several years after Watteau’s death. The Scale of Love (La Gamme d’Amour) may evoke the musical scale, the various stages of flirting and seduction, or the music which facilitates these. The word gamme had other secondary meanings (such as knowledge, ability and custom), perhaps reinforcing the notion here of love or seduction as a skill or technique.

To the right, another couple are seated on the ground, and in the background a third couple leave the scene. A woman with a child leaning into her lap sits between the guitarist and the seated couple. She may be the same woman who is leaving with her male companion, but later in life. The possibility that a child could be the result of their liaison is implied in verses added to an engraving of a similar painting by Watteau in which the children in the picture are referred to, perhaps slightly ironically, as the fruits of tender love.

Although the guitarist is dressed in fantasy costume, his guitar is an accurate representation of a type made by the Voboam dynasty of instrument makers in Paris from 1650 to 1730. The musical score is not a genuine piece of music. A possible title at the top of the left-hand page is illegible, the music itself is a single line melody rather than a score for a singer and guitar accompaniment, and there is no numbering denoting the chords typical of guitar music.

The principal couple in the painting are similar to the male guitarist and his female companion in another work by Watteau, La Récréation galante (Gemäldegalerie, Berlin). It is likely that Watteau worked on the two pictures simultaneously, completing them by 1718. Although smaller, the National Gallery’s picture is a fine example of Watteau’s work on a more intimate scale.

Want to find out more?

Delve deeper and explore the catalogue entry for this painting.

Key facts

Details

Full title: The Scale of Love
Artist: Jean-Antoine Watteau
Artist dates: 1684 - 1721
Date made: probably 1717-8
Medium and support: oil on canvas
Dimensions: 50.8 × 59.7 cm
Acquisition credit: Bequeathed by Sir Julius Wernher, Bt, 1912
Inventory number: NG2897
Location: Room 35
Collection: Main Collection
Frame: 18th-century French Frame

Provenance

In the collection of Denis Mariette (1666–1741) by 1729; in his posthumous inventory of 16 October 1741; by inheritance to his daughter and sole legatee, Jeanne‐Justine Chomel (died 13 December 1782?); sale of Sir John Pringle (1784–1869), London, Christie & Manson, 13 May 1837, lot 53, £90 6s. to Pennell; Philips collection according to Goncourt; in the collection of Yolande Lyne Stephens (1813–1894) when exhibited in 1874; her posthumous sale, Christie, Manson & Woods, London, 9 May 1895, lot 366, £3,507 to Agnew’s; sold by that firm to Julius (later Sir Julius) Wernher (1850–1912), mining magnate and philanthropist, on 13 May 1895 for £3,869 5s.; recorded in the Pink Drawing Room of Wernher’s London home at Bath House, Piccadilly, London; bequeathed by Sir Julius Wernher, Bt, 1912.

Additional information

Text extracted from the ‘Provenance’ section of the catalogue entry in Humphrey Wine, ‘National Gallery Catalogues: The Eighteenth Century French Paintings’, London 2018; for further information, see the full catalogue entry.

Bibliography

1726

J. de Julienne, Abrégé de la vie d'Antoine Watteau, Paris 1726
1745

A.-J. Dézallier d'Argenville, 'Watteau', in A.-J. Dézallier d'Argenville, Abrégé de la vie des plus fameux peintres, Paris 1745
1748

Comte de Caylus, Vie d'Antoine Watteau, Paris 1748
1860

E. de Goncourt and J. de Goncourt, L'art du XVIIIe siècle: Watteau, Paris 1860
1875

E. de Goncourt, Catalogue raisonné de l'oeuvre peint, dessiné et grave d'Antoine Watteau, Paris 1875
1922

D.V. Dacier, E. Hérold and J. Vuaflart, Jean de Julienne et les graveurs de Watteau au XVIIIe siècle, Paris 1922
1946

Martin Davies, National Gallery Catalogues: French School, London 1946
1950

H. Adhémar, Watteau, sa vie, son oeuvre, Paris 1950
1957

Martin Davies, National Gallery Catalogues: French School, 2nd edn (revised), London 1957
1957

K.T. Parker and J. Mathey, Antoine Watteau: Catalogue complet de son oeuvre dessiné, Paris 1957
1970

P. Rosenberg and E. Camesasca, Tout l'oeuvre peint de Watteau, Paris 1970
1974

J.W. Niemeijer, Franse tekenkunst van de 18de eeuw uit nederlandse verzamelingen, Amsterdam 1974
1980

T. Burollet, Musée Cognacq-Jay, peintures et dessins, Paris 1980
1980

P. Hulton, Watteau Drawings in the British Museum (exh. cat. British Museum, 16 October 1980 - 20 April 1981), London 1980
1984

D. Posner, Antoine Watteau, London 1984
1984

P. Rosenberg, Vies anciennes de Wattteau, Paris 1984
1984

P. Rosenberg and M. Morgan-Grasseli, Watteau, 1684-1721 (exh. cat. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 17 June - 23 September 1984; Grand Palais, 23 October 1984 - 28 January 1985; Schloss Charlottenburg, 22 February - 26 May 1985), Washington 1984
1985

M. Wilson, French Paintings before 1800, London 1985
1987

F.M. Moureau and M.M. Grasselli (eds), Antoine Watteau (1684-1721): La peintre, son temps et sa légende, Paris 1987
1987

M. Levey, The National Gallery Collection, London 1987
1987

M.R. Michel, Antoine Watteau: An Artist of the Eighteenth Century, London 1987
1992

M. Vidal, Watteau's Painted Convesations: Art, Literature and Talk in Seventeenth- and Eighteenth-Century France, New Haven 1992
1994

E. Jollet, Watteau: Les fêtes galantes, Paris 1994
1997

L.J. Feinberg and F. Zuccari, 'A Rediscovered "Fête champêtre" by Watteau in the Art Institute of Chicago', The Burlington Magazine, CXXXIX/1129, 1997, pp. 236-47
2001

C. Baker and T. Henry, The National Gallery: Complete Illustrated Catalogue, London 2001
2002

R. Temperini, Watteau, Paris 2002
2018

Wine, Humphrey, National Gallery Catalogues: The Eighteenth Century French Paintings, London 2018

Frame

This eighteenth-century French frame in the Louis XV style is carved from oak and limewood. The central pierced cartouches feature ‘dauphine’ feathers, a motif linked to the young French king, adding a regal touch to the frame’s design. The top swept curvature reveals a glimpse of the gilt back curve, culminating in a cabochon-patterned back edge. The pierced corner cartouches are embellished with a stylised shell motif flanked by floral cornucopias on either side, evoking the whimsical charm characteristic of Rococo aesthetics. On the cartouches, ‘rinceaux’ (branches with foliage) spread onto the gilded hollow moulding. A sanded flat leads to a French acanthus-leaf sight edge.

Despite alterations, such as the glazing door added in 1932 and several regilding efforts that obscure the original recutting technique, the Rococo frame is probably the first or original frame for this painting.

About this record

If you know more about this painting or have spotted an error, please contact us. Please note that exhibition histories are listed from 2009 onwards. Bibliographies may not be complete; more comprehensive information is available in the National Gallery Library.

Images

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Not on display