This expressive sheet is a study for the man's head in Watteau's painting "Mezzetin," also in the Metropolitan Museum. Mezzetin was a character in the popular commedia dell'arte, typically amorous and sentimental. In the Museum's painting, he sits on a stone bench outside a building, playing a guitar and gazing plaintively at an unseen window. The artist placed a female garden statue in the woods behind the Mezzetin, its back turned to the actor, suggesting an unrequited love.

In this robust red and black study, Watteau established the angle of the head, the uplifted eyes, and the parted lips that he carried over into the painting. In its emotional force and the melding of the two colors of chalk, this sheet recalls the precedent of Rubens, an artist much admired by Watteau.

Jules Niel (French, died ca. 1873), according to the Biron sale catalogue.; Gabrielle Niel ; Guillaume de Gontaut-Biron, marquis de Biron , his sale, Galerie Georges Petit, Paris, June 9-11, 1914, lot 63, bought in, (then re-entered the Biron collection, Geneva, and was acquired by the MMA in 1937).

Bean and Turcic 1986.333; Rosenberg and Prat 1999.615 (vol. II)

James Byam Shaw "The Biron Collection of Venetian Eighteenth-Century Drawings in the Metropolitan Museum of Art." Metropolitan Museum Journal. vol. 3, New York, 1971, fig. no. 21, p. 257.

J. L. Allen "Drawings from the Biron Collection". XXXIII, March. New York, 1938, pp. 77-78, ill.

Hermann Warner Williams, Jr. "Some French Drawings from the Biron Collection" Art Quarterly. II, Winter. 1939, fig. no. 2, pp. 48-55, ill.

Walter Mehring European Drawings from the Collections of The Metropolitan Museum of Art (A Portfolio of Collotype Reproductions) [Vol. 1: Italian Drawings; Vol. 2: Flemish, Dutch, German, Spanish, French, and British drawings; Vol. 3: Titled "New Series": Italian, Flemish, Dutch, German, Spanish, French, and British drawings]. 3 Vols., New York, 1942-1944, also N.S., no. 36., cat. no. 31 (Vol.2), fig. no. 31, ill.

Michel Benisovich "The French Drawings of the Metropolitan Museum" The Burlington Magazine. 82, March. London, 1943, p. 70.

Hans Tietze European Master Drawings in the United States. J. J. Augustin, New York, 1947, cat. no. 83, pp. 166-167.

Regina Shoolman, Charles E. Slatkin Six Centuries of French Master Drawings in America. Oxford University Press, New York, 1950, fig. no. pl. 25, p. 42, ill.

Art Treasures of the Metropolitan: A Selection from the European and Asiatic Collections of The Metropolitan Museum of Art Presented by the Curatorial Staff. New York, 1952, cat. no. 62, pp. 69, 222, ill.

Karl Theodore Parker, Jacques Mathey Catalogue de l'oeuvre dessiné d'Antoine Watteau. II, Paris, 1957, cat. no. 726.

"French Drawings" Metropolitan Musem of Art Bulletin. The Metropolitan Museum of Art, , 17, no. 6, February 1959. New York, 1959, p. 166, ill.

Jacob Bean 100 European Drawings in the Metropolitan Museum of Art. New York Graphic Society, New York, 1964, cat. no. 56, ill.

Linda Boyer Gillies, Colta Ives French Drawings and Prints of the Eighteenth Century. New York, 1972, cat. no. 46.

Donald Posner Antoine Watteau. Ithaca, New York, 1984, fig. no. pl. 49, pp. 206, 208.

Marianne Roland Michel Watteau. Un Artiste au XVIIIe siècle. Paris, 1984, fig. no. pl. XXX, p. 143.

Margaret Morgan Grasselli, Pierre Rosenberg Watteau, 1684-1721. Washington, 1984, cat. no. D110, under P49, fig. no. 8, pp. 188, 364-365, ill.

Jacob Bean, Lawrence Turcic 15th-18th Century French Drawings in The Metropolitan Museum of Art. New York, 1986, cat. no. 333, p. 297, ill.

Pierre Rosenberg, Louis-Antoine Prat Antoine Watteau 1684-1721 Catalogue raisonné des dessins. I-III, Milan, 1996, cat. no. 615 (vol. II), pp. 1048-1049, ill.

Alan Wintermute, The Frick Collection, National Gallery of Canada Watteau and His World: French Drawings from 1700-1750. 1999-2000, cat. no. 40, pp. 170-171, ill.

Pierre Rosenberg, Georgia J. Cowart Watteau, Music, and Theater. Edited by Katharine Baetjer, New York, 2009, cat. no. 31, pp. 84-85, ill.