Detail of The Fair at Bezons by Pater in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, January 2022

Title: The Fair at Bezons

Artist: Jean-Baptiste Joseph Pater (French, Valenciennes 1695–1736 Paris)

Date: ca. 1733

Medium: Oil on canvas

Dimensions: 42 x 56 in. (106.7 x 142.2 cm)

Classification: Paintings

Credit Line: The Jules Bache Collection, 1949

Accession Number: 49.7.52

This painting, Pater’s masterpiece, depicts a fair held outside Paris each year on the first Sunday in September. The event inspired a stage play, a ballet-pantomime, and several works of art during the eighteenth century, when popular entertainment regularly inspired high culture. People from all classes of society are depicted enjoying the festivities; the idyllic, make-believe atmosphere derives from the work of Antoine Watteau. The principal dancer may be Mademoiselle d'Angeville, a famous actress. Behind her is Pierrot, a stock character in commedia dell’arte skits.

Text from: www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/437257