La Boudeuse

1718 · Painting · 42 × 34 cm

May one see it?

Yes, receiving visitors

State Hermitage Museum

Saint Petersburg, Russia

Room284

On public display.

Checked: 29 Aug 2026
In this state since: Aug 30, 2026
Source: The museum's own collection data

On the map Museum page

About the painting

La Boudeuse is the modern title given to an oil on canvas painting in the Hermitage Museum, Saint Petersburg, by the French Rococo painter Antoine Watteau (1684–1721). Completed in the late 1710s, La Boudeuse depicts a young couple set amidst a park in the foreground, in a rare example of the two-figure landscape composition which is considered one of the best fêtes galantes in Watteau's later work. However, the picture's authenticity was also a subject of scholarly debate, for it had been engraved by English painter Philippe Mercier, once a follower of Watteau, and was not included in Jean de Jullienne's edition of Watteau's work published in the 1730s.

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Since the mid-18th century, La Boudeuse was among collections formed by the British statesman Robert Walpole, and later by his son, the writer Horace Walpole; until the sale of 1842, it was located in Horace Walpole's estate, Strawberry Hill House. Following a number of sales in the middle of the 19th century, the painting came into possession of prominent Russian art collector, Count Pavel Stroganov; after the Revolution of 1917, La Boudeuse was transferred into the Hermitage Museum, where it remains.

Wikipedia CC BY-SA

In the museum's own words — in Russian

Картина признается одной из лучших галантных сцен позднего периода творчества Антуана Ватто, чье авторство никогда не вызывало сомнений. Своим оригинальным названием «La Boudeuse», поныне фигурирующим в иностранной литературе, картина обязана французскому романисту, историку и художественному критику Эдмону де Гонкуру, который именно так упомянул ее в «Catalogue raisonné de l’oeuvre peint, dessiné et gravé d’Antoine Watteau» (Goncourt 1875). Русское название «Капризница» связано со старым переводом этого слова на русский язык. В действительности оно означает «надувшая губы». Многих историков ставил в тупик загадочный сюжет картины. Они безрезультатно силились осмыслить роль женской фигуры – то ли надменной, высокомерной, то ли безразличной до бесчувственности и презрительной (Rosenberg 1984). Одеяния персонажей также достаточно необычны.

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На голове кавалера красуется красноватый берет, какие носят только на сцене; черное платье дамы, с длинными прорезными рукавами, – тоже, несомненно, театральный костюм. Подобные одеяния в духе XVII в. очень характерны для французcкого театра особенно первой четверти XVIII столетия. Ватто любил ставить своих персонажей в пространстве между ролью и реальной жизнью, что придавало загадочный смысл многим его произведениям. Интересную трактовку нашего сюжета предложила Ю. Н. Белова (2010). Каприз в теории светского общения того времени – целая структура прихотливого поведения, связанная скорее с женским самоутверждением, нежели с глупыми притязаниями. Главная героиня играет в каприз, осваивая новый тип обольстительницы, знающей себе цену. Кавалер, опытный ловелас, кажется, заинтригован этой таящей неожиданные повороты игрой не по правилам, которую принесла в светскую жизнь эпоха Регентства. Но повод для обиды представляется надуманным и, по-видимому, призван спровоцировать кавалера на притворную ссору.

State Hermitage Museum

Particulars

Accession number: ГЭ-4120

In the catalog

Paintings Oil French painting Baroque 18th century France

Sources

State Hermitage Museum: the museum's own open data · fetched 29 Aug 2026
Image: State Hermitage Museum — Museum open access

Meanwhile, in the life of Jean-Antoine Watteau

The whole life

1710s
Meets Edme-François Gersaint
At Sirois's house Watteau meets his son-in-law, the art dealer Edme-François Gersaint, who soon becomes a close friend.
1710s
Tuberculosis sets in
Watteau's fame grows steadily, yet he is as a rule dissatisfied with everything that comes from his brush; at the same time he develops a serious illness, tuberculosis.
c. 1717
Crozat recommends Watteau to Rosalba Carriera
Watteau's fame spreads beyond Paris: the banker Crozat writes to the celebrated portraitist Rosalba Carriera in Venice that among Paris painters he knows no one but Watteau who could produce a work worthy of being shown to her. Crozat's patronage and lucrative commissions help to launch the painter's European reputation.
28 August 1717
Elected to the Academy: a “fête galante”
By 1717 Watteau's “gallant scenes” have had such wide success that an exception is made for his reception piece, “Pilgrimage to Cythera”: in the minutes the words “pilgrimage to Cythera” are struck out and replaced by “fête galante”. Watteau is elected a full member of the Academy; the ceremony is attended by the First Painter to the King, Antoine Coypel, by Claude Gillot and by the Regent, the Duke of Orléans.
1718
Leaves Crozat's house
Watteau's independent character does not let him stay long in such luxurious but constraining circumstances, and in 1718 he leaves the house of his patron, who does not lose interest in his art. “Gilles” was probably one of the last works painted in the large studio put at his disposal in Crozat's mansion.
late 1719 – summer 1720
To London, to see Dr Richard Mead
Watteau's health is failing, and he goes to England at the invitation of Philippe Mercier, an admirer and imitator, hoping to overcome tuberculosis with the help of the well-known physician Richard Mead. The treatment brings no noticeable result and the London climate only aggravates his condition; he returns to Paris in summer 1720, gravely ill.