GILLOT, Claude

Gillot was much attracted to the whole milieu represented by the Italian comedy and similar fairground theatre. He became involved in a variety of ways, and may have written for it as well as delineating it. Often preferring to use the pen, Gillot recreated and expanded scenes from the Commedia, with a rapid, lively grasp. He saw the potentiality, and the fascination, of this largely novel subject-matter. Under fancy costumes and exaggerated types, the ‘comedy’ is a thoroughly human one.

Gillot was a straightforward illustrator of the Commedia dell’arte, his work dependent on its subject-matter for humour, wit, or any amorous overtone. In the Two Coaches (Quarrel of the Cabmen), the incident depicted is far livelier than the paint by which it is depicted; the scene is enacted virtually as it must have been on the stage - to the point where one may wonder whether the picture’s original function could have been that of a signboard or comparable advertisement.