1726
From the collection of Cleveland Museum of Art
Trissotin Reading to Philaminte, Bélise, and Armande (from act 3, scene 2 of Molière's "Les Femmes Savantes" is a 1726 by Charles-Antoine Coypel, a Baroque work, held at Cleveland Museum of Art.
This painting shows a man reading to three women. He's standing, and they're seated. You can see the interest in the details of the scene, like the women's reactions to what's being read. The artist's experience as a playwright likely helped him depict this moment from a play. To learn more about similar artworks, visit the museum: The Cleveland Museum of Art.
The son of Antoine Coypel (whose drawing is on view nearby), Charles Coypel was a playwright as well as an artist, so his understanding of the theater was profound. This is the only known drawing for the series of prints Coypel designed after scenes from famous works by the great playwright Molière (about 1622-1673). For the subject of this drawing, Coypel chose a famous scene from The Learned Ladies, in which the pompous tutor, Trissotin, reads his own work to his pretentious female admirers, Philaminte, Bélise, and Armande, all of whom have been duped by his pseudo-intellectualism. The…
Read the full account in the museum source.
Charles-Antoine Coypel (French pronunciation: ; 11 July 1694 – 14 June 1752) was a French painter, art critic, and playwright.
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