Actors of the Comédie-Française

Actors of the Comédie-Française is a painting by Antoine Watteau, dated to c.1712 thanks to its similarities to Le Bel âge (aka Le Concert) and La Polonaise assise, both works dated to 1710-1712.

The work has also been known as Returning from the Ball (La Rentrée du bal), Masked Figures Preparing for a Ball, The Masquerade and The Coquettes. It was renamed The Actors of the Comédie-Italienne in the 19th century but later study of Watteau's drawings instead identified its characters as members of the Comédie-Française in their roles from Florent Carton Dancourt's The Three Cousins. Left to right, they are Charlotte Desmares (known as 'la Desmares', former mistress of the future Regent), Philippe Poisson, an unknown boy (who also appears in the 1712 The Conversation), an unknown woman and Pierre Le Noir (son of La Thorillière and brother-in-law of Dancourt). It is now in the Hermitage Museum, which it entered as part of the Crozat collection, bought by Catherine II of Russia in 1772.