Cholet -Rome -Paris, 1703 -1739 · Theatrical allegory and French grace

A group of figures transforms Comedy into a living presence: in a quick study, Trémolières seeks the balance of a large setting before its completion.

Pierre Charles Trémolières was born in Cholet in 1703 and died in Paris in 1739. A student of Jean-Baptiste Vanloo then a resident in Rome from 1728, he led a dazzling Parisian career, barely five years long, interrupted by illness. The Comedy, painted around 1736 in oil on canvas, measures 37.5 × 45.1 cm. It is probably a study for a large composition produced between 1736 and 1738 and presented at the Salon of 1738 with its counterpart, Tragedy. The choice to personify the two dramatic genres was then still new. In the small canvas, the attitudes, draperies and looks do not describe a precise scene: they give an allegorical body to the spirit of comic theater. The moving touch retains the productive hesitations of preparation, while a head drawing preserved in Stockholm testifies to the attentive construction under the apparent ease. The work sums up a career that is too short, but fully engaged in the great setting of the reign of Louis XV. The "Pierre Charles Trémolières" selection notably compares Comedy. His reading favors composition.

The sketch does not reduce the grand decor: it retains the idea at the moment when each gesture can still change.