Public collection via the Cleveland Museum of Art
AT-00010073Pierrot in Criminal Court
About the Artwork
In this painting, Couture used two famous masked characters, Pierrot and Harlequin, to satirize and critique the public and the judicial system of the 19th century. The pathetic Pierrot represents a lower-class fool on trial for stealing food from a restaurant. The stolen items are depicted lying on the courtroom floor as an indictment of his guilt. His accusers sit on the left, while Harlequin, his lawyer, argues theatrically for the defense. The artist's contempt for the legal profession and the court system is plain in the figures of the sleeping judges. A mid-19th-century observer may have sympathized with Pierrot, who for his own survival cunningly subverts authority in order to satisfy his needs.
Inscriptions
Signed left on the back of the bench: t.c.
Provenance
Jay Gould. J. Rougeron, New York, NY Arthur Tooth & Sons, London, United Kingdom A. Saloman December 3, 1976: (Christie's, London, December 3, 1976, lot 105) by 1977–1980: Mr. and Mrs. Noah L. Butkin, Cleveland, OH bequeathed to the Cleveland Museum of Art 1980–: The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH
Exhibition history
Year in Review: 1980. The Cleveland Museum of Art (organizer) (June 24-July 19, 1981).
Data retrieved from the Cleveland Museum of Art on October 8, 2026. The museum may have updated its record since.
Quick Overview
- Artist
- Thomas Couture (French, 1815–1879)
- Date
- c. 1864–70
- Medium
- oil on wood panel
- Dimensions
- Framed: 45.8 x 52.1 x 5.2 cm (18 1/16 x 20 1/2 x 2 1/16 in.); Unframed: 32.2 x 39.2 cm (12 11/16 x 15 7/16 in.)
- Type
- Painting
- Classification
- Painting
- Department
- Modern European Painting and Sculpture
- Credit line
- Bequest of Noah L. Butkin
- Accession no.
- 1980.250
More by Thomas Couture in museum collections
Open-access museum record · AT-00010073
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