Interior with an Elegant Lady Receiving a Suitor

Many of Naiveu’s later works depict the performing of plays or as here, a scene from a play. The dramas depicted in Naiveu’s theatrical pictures are seldom identifiable. In this picture the man entering to the right carries over his arm the costume of a Harlequin, or the Commedia dell’Arte figure of Arlecchino. Although the room depicted is arranged as a theatre set, it is probably not a literal depiction of the enactment of a play before an audience.