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{{Short description|Stock character}}
{{Other uses}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=January 2024}}

[[File:Paul Legrand by Nadar c1855.jpg|thumb|250px|{{center|[[Paul Legrand]] as Pierrot, {{circa|1855}}. Photograph by [[Nadar]].}}]]
'''Pierrot''' ({{IPAc-en|ˈ|p|ɪər|oʊ}} {{respell|PEER|oh}}, {{IPAc-en|USalso|ˈ|p|iː|ə|r|oʊ|,_|ˌ|p|iː|ə|ˈ|r|oʊ}} {{respell|PEE|ə|roh|,_|PEE|ə|ROH}}; {{IPA|fr|pjɛʁo|lang|LL-Q150 (fra)-Arthur Crbz-Pierrot.wav}}) is a [[stock character]] of [[pantomime]] and [[commedia dell'arte]] whose origins date back to the late 17th-century Italian troupe of players performing in Paris and known as the [[Comédie-Italienne]]. The name is a [[hypocorism|diminutive]] of ''Pierre'' (Peter), using the suffix ''[[wikt:-ot#French|-ot]]'' and derives from the Italian [[Pedrolino]]. His character in contemporary popular culture—in poetry, fiction, and the visual arts, as well as works for the stage, screen, and concert hall—is that of the sad [[clown]], often pining for love of [[Columbina|Columbine]] (who usually breaks his heart and leaves him for [[Harlequin]]). Performing unmasked, with a whitened face, he wears a loose white blouse with large buttons and wide white pantaloons. Sometimes he appears with a frilled collaret and a hat, usually with a close-fitting crown and wide round brim and, more rarely, with a conical shape like a dunce's cap.

Pierrot's character developed from that of a [[buffoon]] to become an avatar of the disenfranchised.<ref>Janin called Deburau's Pierrot "the people among the people" ([http://gallica.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/bpt6k204330f/f182.image pp. 156-57]); Gautier identified him as "the modern proletarian, the pariah, the passive and disinherited being" (V, 24).</ref> Many [[Cultural references to Pierrot|cultural movements]] found him amenable to their respective causes: [[Decadent movement|Decadents]] turned him into a disillusioned foe of idealism; [[Symbolism (arts)|Symbolists]] saw him as a lonely fellow-sufferer; [[Modernism|Modernists]] made him into a silent, alienated observer of the mysteries of the human condition.<ref>On Pierrot in the art of the Decadents and Symbolists, see [[#Pantomime and late 19th-century art|Pantomime and late 19th-century art]]; for his image in the art of the Modernists, see, for example, the [[Juan Gris]] canvases reproduced in [[#Works on canvas, paper, and board|Works on canvas, paper, and board]].{{dead link|date=September 2024}}</ref> Much of that mythic quality ("I'm Pierrot," said [[David Bowie]]: "I'm Everyman")<ref name="bowiegoldenyears.com">Jean Rook, [http://www.bowiegoldenyears.com/articles/760505-dailyexpress.html "Waiting for Bowie, and finding a genius who insists he's really a clown"]. {{Webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171227235224/http://www.bowiegoldenyears.com/articles/760505-dailyexpress.html |date=2017-12-27 }}, ''Daily Express'', 5 May 1976.</ref> still adheres to the "sad clown" in the [[postmodernism|postmodern]] era.

==Origins: 17th century==
[[Image:Antoine Watteau - The Italian Comedians - Google Art Project.jpg|thumb|[[Antoine Watteau]]: ''Italian Actors'', {{circa|1719}}. National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.]]
Pierrot is sometimes said to be a French variant of the sixteenth-century Italian [[Pedrolino]],<ref>Sand, Duchartre, and Oreglia see a close family resemblance between—if not an interchangeability of—both characters. Mic claims that an historical connection between Pedrolino and "the celebrated Pierrots of [Adolphe] Willette" is "absolutely evident" (p. 211). Nicoll writes that Pedrolino is the "Italian equivalent" of Pierrot (''World'', p. 88). As late as 1994, Rudlin (pp. 137-38) renames Pierrot "Pedrolino" in a translation of a scene from Nolant de Fatouville's ''Harlequin, Emperor of the Moon'' (1684): see Gherardi, [https://books.google.com/books?id=vDg0AAAAMAAJ&pg=PA181 I, 179].</ref> but the two types have little but their names ("Little Pete") and social stations in common.<ref>There is no documentation from the 17th century that links the two figures. In fact, what documentation does exist links Pierrot, not with Pedrolino, but with [[Pulcinella]]. "Dominique" Biancolelli, Harlequin of the first Comédie-Italienne in which Pierrot appeared by name, noted that "The nature of the ''rôle'' is that of a Neapolitan Pulcinella a little altered. In point of fact, the Neapolitan scenarii, in place of Arlecchino and Scapino, admit two Pulcinellas, the one an intriguing rogue and the other a stupid fool. The latter is Pierot's {{sic}} ''rôle'': MS 13736, Bibliothèque de l'Opéra, Paris, I, 113; cited and tr. Nicoll, ''Masks'', p. 294.</ref> Both are comic servants, but Pedrolino, as a so-called "first" [[Zanni#Two types of Zanni|Zanni]], often acts with cunning and daring.<ref>

[[File:Pedrolino and the Doctor in 1621 woodcut.jpg|thumb|Pedrolino scuffles with [[il Dottore]], 1621.]]
In one of the few extant contemporary illustrations involving Pedrolino—i.e., the frontispiece of Giulio Cesare Croce's ''Pedrolino's Great Victory against the Doctor Gratiano Scatolone, for Love of the Beautiful Franceschina'' (1621)—the Zanni is shown thrashing [[il Dottore]] rather savagely (and, as the title indicates, victoriously). Such aggressive ferocity is almost never to be seen, early or late, in the behavioral repertoire of Pierrot. Pierrot can be murderous (see [[#"Shakespeare at the Funambules" and aftermath|"Shakespeare at the Funambules" and aftermath]] below), but he is very rarely pugnacious (as he is in the pantomimes of the [[Hanlon-Lees]]).</ref> an engine of the plot in the [[scenario]]s where he appears.<ref>He appears in forty-nine of the fifty scenarios in Flaminio Scala's ''Il teatro delle favole rappresentative'' (1611) and in three of the scenarios in the unpublished "Corsini" collection. Salerno has translated the Scala scenarios; Pandolfi (V, 252–276) has summarized the plots of the "Corsini" pieces.</ref> Pierrot, on the other hand, as a "second"' Zanni, stands "on the periphery of the action".<ref>"Indeed, Pierrot appears in comparative isolation from his fellow masks, with few exceptions, in all the plays of ''Le Théâtre Italien'', standing on the periphery of the action, commenting, advising, chiding, but rarely taking part in the movement around him": Storey, ''Pierrot: a critical history'', pp. 27-28.</ref> He dispenses advice and courts his master's young daughter, Columbine, bashfully.<ref>See the discussion in Storey, ''Pierrot: a critical history'', pp. 22–28.</ref>

His origins among the Italian players in France go back to [[Molière]]'s peasant Pierrot in ''[[Dom Juan|Don Juan, or The Stone Guest]]'' (1665).<ref>Fournier, [http://gallica.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/bpt6k2013692/f124.image p. 113], provides the information for this paragraph. "If, as [http://gallica.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/bpt6k2013692/f125.image Fournier points out], Molière gave [his Pierrot] 'the white blouse of a French peasant', then I doubt very much that we have to look for traces of his origins [i.e., of the origins of the Italians' Pierrot] in the commedia dell'arte at all": Storey, ''Pierrot: a critical history'', p. 20.</ref> In 1673, the Comédie-Italienne made its own contribution to the Don Juan legend with an ''Addendum to "The Stone Guest''",<ref>This was its second such contribution, the first being ''Il Convitato di pietra'' (The Stone Guest, 1658), which was the basis for the ''Addendum'' (albeit without its Pierrot) and the inspiration for Molière's play. See Fournier, [http://gallica.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/bpt6k2013692/f124.image pp. 112-113].</ref> which included Molière's Pierrot.<ref>Harlequin Biancolelli's manuscript-[[scenario]] of the play offers no insight into Pierrot's character. Pierrot's name appears only once: "This scene takes place in the country. I drop the hunting horn at Spezzafer's feet; he blows it; then, on the run, I trip up '''Pierrot'''; then I find a blind man ....". MS of the Opéra (Paris), II, 177; cited in Klingler, p. 154.</ref> Thereafter the character—sometimes a peasant,<ref>See, e.g., [https://books.google.com/books?id=ZDM0AAAAMAAJ&pg=PA195 Act III, scene iii] of [[Eustache Le Noble]]'s ''Harlequin-Aesop'' (1691) in the Gherardi collection. A translated excerpt from the scene appears in Storey, ''Pierrot: a critical history'', p. 20.</ref> but more often now an Italianate "second" Zanni—appeared fairly regularly in the Italians' offerings, his role always taken by one Giuseppe Giaratone (or Geratoni, fl. 1639-1697).

Among the French dramatists writing roles for Pierrot were [[Jean de Palaprat]], Claude-Ignace Brugière de Barante, [[Antoine Houdar de la Motte]], and [[Jean-François Regnard]].<ref>See especially Regnard's [https://books.google.com/books?id=AzM0AAAAMAAJ&pg=PA318 ''Happy-Go-Lucky Harlequin''] (1690), [https://books.google.com/books?id=ZDM0AAAAMAAJ&pg=PA1 ''The Wayward Girls''] (1690), and [https://books.google.com/books?id=ZDM0AAAAMAAJ&pg=PA89 ''The Coquette, or The Ladies' Academy''] (1691); Palaprat's [https://books.google.com/books?id=6jM0AAAAMAAJ&pg=PA72 ''The Level-headed Girl''] (1692); Houdar de la Motte's [https://books.google.com/books?id=6jM0AAAAMAAJ&pg=PA290 ''The Eccentrics, or The Italian'' (Les Originaux, ou l'Italien, 1693)]; and Brugière de Barante's [https://books.google.com/books?id=UzQ0AAAAMAAJ&pg=PA265 ''The False Coquette''] (1694). All appear in the Gherardi collection.</ref> They present him as an anomaly among busy social personalities around him.<ref>See, e.g., the [https://books.google.com/books?id=ZDM0AAAAMAAJ&pg=PA24 Scene des remontrances] of Regnard's ''Wayward Girls'' in the Gherardi collection.  A translated excerpt from this scene appears in Storey, ''Pierrot: a critical history'', p. 23.</ref> Columbine laughs at his advances;<ref>See [https://books.google.com/books?id=ZDM0AAAAMAAJ&pg=PA100 Act I, scene v] of Regnard's ''La Coquette'' and [https://books.google.com/books?id=6jM0AAAAMAAJ&pg=PA321 Act III, scene i] of Houdar de la Motte's ''The Eccentrics'' (''Les Originaux''), both in the Gherardi collection. Translations of these scenes appear in Storey, ''Pierrot: a critical history'', pp. 26-27.</ref> his masters who are in pursuit of pretty young wives brush off his warnings to act their age.<ref>See, e.g., [https://books.goog-25.le.com/books?id=6jM0AAAAMAAJ&pg=PA78 Act I, scene ii]{{dead link|date=December 2017 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }} of Palaprat's ''Level-Headed Girl'' in the Gherardi collection. A translated excerpt from this scene appears in Storey, ''Pierrot: a critical history'', pp. 24-25.</ref> His isolation bears the pathos of [[Antoine Watteau|Watteau]]'s portraits.

==18th century==

===France===
[[File:Jean-Antoine Watteau - Pierrot, dit autrefois Gilles.jpg|thumb|[[Antoine Watteau]]: ''Gilles (or Pierrot) and Four Other Characters of the Commedia dell'Arte'', {{circa|1718}}. Musée du Louvre, Paris.]]
[[File:Les acteurs de la Comédie italienne - Nicolas Lancret - Louvre.jpg|thumb|[[Nicolas Lancret]]: ''Actors of the Comédie-Italienne'', between 1716 and 1736. Musée du Louvre, Paris.]]
[[File:Jean-Honoré Fragonard - A Boy as Pierrot - WGA08079.jpg|thumb|[[Jean-Honoré Fragonard]]: ''A Boy as Pierrot'', between 1776 and 1780. The Wallace Collection, London.]]
An Italian company was called back to Paris in 1716, and Pierrot was reincarnated by the actors Pierre-François Biancolelli (son of the Harlequin of the banished troupe of players) and, after Biancolelli abandoned the role, the celebrated [[Fabio Sticotti]] (1676–1741) and his son [[Antoine Jean Sticotti|Antoine Jean]] (1715–1772).<ref>Courville, II, 104; Campardon, ''Comédiens du roi'', [https://archive.org/stream/lescomdiensduro02campgoog#page/n157/mode/2up II, 145]; Meldolesi.</ref> But the character seems to have been regarded as unimportant by this company, since he appears infrequently in its new plays.<ref>In the last (1753) edition of the ''Nouveau Théâtre Italien'', he appears only once—in Delisle de la Drévetière's ''The Falcon and the Eggs of Boccaccio'' (1725). The new company still produced pieces from the first Comédie-Italienne; they were added to the repertoire in 1718: Gueullette, pp. 87ff.</ref>

The character appeared often in the 18th century on Parisian stages. Sometimes he spoke gibberish, sometimes the audience itself sang his lines, inscribed on placards held aloft.<ref>These developments occurred in 1707 and 1708, respectively; see Bonnassies.</ref> He could appear as a valet, a cook, or an adventurer; his character is not strictly defined.<ref>Barberet, p. 154; tr. Storey, ''Pierrot: a critical history'', pp. 52, 53.</ref>

In the 1720s, Pierrot came into his own. In plays such as ''Trophonius's Cave'' (1722) and ''The Golden Ass'' (1725),<ref>Both in Piron, IV; Storey translates a scene from ''Trophonius's Cave'' in ''Pierrot: a critical history'', pp. 57-58.</ref> one meets an engaging Pierrot. The accomplished comic actor Jean-Baptiste Hamoche portrayed him with success.<ref>Campardon, ''Spectacles'', [https://archive.org/stream/lesspectaclesde00campgoog#page/n443/mode/2up I, 391]; tr. Storey, ''Pierrot: a critical history'', p. 54, note 31.</ref>  After 1733, he rarely appears in new plays.<ref>Barberet, p. 155; tr. Storey, ''Pierrot: a critical history'', p. 58.</ref>

Pierrot also appeared in the visual arts and in folksongs ("[[Au clair de la lune]]").<ref>" ... without the least proof": Fournier, [http://gallica.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/bpt6k2013692/f125.image p. 114.]</ref> The art of [[Claude Gillot]] (''Master André's Tomb'' [c. 1717]), of Gillot's students Watteau (''Italian Actors'' [c. 1719]) and [[Nicolas Lancret]] (''Italian Actors near a Fountain'' [c. 1719]), of [[Jean-Baptiste Oudry]] (''Italian Actors in a Park'' [c. 1725]), of [[Philippe Mercier]] (''Pierrot and Harlequin'' [n.d.]), and of [[Jean-Honoré Fragonard]] (''A Boy as Pierrot'' [1776–1780]), features him prominently.

===England===
As early as 1673, just months after Pierrot had made his debut in the ''Addendum to "The Stone Guest"'', [[Scaramouche]] Tiberio Fiorilli and a troupe assembled from the Comédie-Italienne entertained Londoners with selections from their Parisian repertoire.<ref>On the French players in England, and particularly on Pierrot in early English entertainments, see Storey, ''Pierrot: a critical history'', pp. 82–89.</ref> And in 1717, Pierrot's name first appears in an English entertainment: a [[pantomime]] by [[John Rich (producer)|John Rich]] entitled ''The Jealous Doctor; or, The Intriguing Dame''. Thereafter, until the end of the century, Pierrot appeared fairly regularly in English pantomimes (which were originally mute [[harlequinade]]s; in the 19th century, the harlequinade was a "play within a play" during the pantomime), finding his most notable interpreter in [[Carlo Delpini]] (1740–1828). Delpini, according to the popular-theater historian, M. Willson Disher, "kept strictly to the idea of a creature so stupid as to think that if he raised his leg level with his shoulder he could use it as a gun."<ref>{{harvnb|Disher|1925|p=135}}.</ref> Pierrot was later displaced by the English [[clown]].<ref>{{harvnb|Findlater|1978|p=79}}.</ref>

===Denmark===
In 1800, a troupe of Italian players led by Pasquale Casorti performed in [[Dyrehavsbakken]]. Casorti's son, Giuseppe (1749–1826), began appearing as Pierrot in pantomimes, which now had a formulaic plot structure.<ref>[http://www.denstoredanske.dk/Kunst_og_kultur/Teater/Danske_skuespillere/Casorti?highlight=pasquale%20casorti "Casorti", ''Gyldendals encyklopædi''.]</ref> Pierrot is still a fixture at [[Dyrehavsbakken|Bakken]], at nearby [[Tivoli Gardens]] and [[Tivoli Friheden]] in [[Aarhus]].<ref>{{Cite web |title=Pjerrot i Tivoli Friheden |url=https://friheden.dk/pjerrot |access-date=2022-12-28 |website=friheden.dk}}</ref><ref>{{Citation |title=Pjerrot fejrer 25 år jubilæum i Tivoli Friheden | date=23 November 2021 |url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2Nqz3RcUnTw |language=en |access-date=2022-12-28}}</ref>[[File:Cómicos ambulantes.jpg|thumb|upright|[[Francisco de Goya]]: ''Itinerant Actors'' (1793). Museo del Prado, Madrid.]]

===Germany===
[[Ludwig Tieck]]'s ''The Topsy-Turvy World'' (1798) is an early—and highly successful—example of the introduction of the [[commedia dell'arte]] characters into [[Parody|parodic]] [[metatheater]] (Pierrot is a member of the audience watching the play).

===Spain===
The penetration of Pierrot and his companions of the ''commedia'' into Spain is documented in a painting by [[Francisco Goya|Goya]], ''Itinerant Actors'' (1793). It foreshadows the work of such Spanish successors as [[Picasso]] and [[Fernand Pelez]], both of whom also showed strong sympathy with the lives of traveling [[saltimbanco]]s.

==19th century==

===Pantomime of Deburau at the Théâtre des Funambules===
[[File:Jean-Gaspard Deburau.jpg|thumb|[[:fr:Auguste Bouquet|Auguste Bouquet]]: ''[[Jean-Gaspard Deburau]]'', {{circa|1830}}]]
The [[Théâtre des Funambules]] was a little theater licensed in its early years to present only mimed and acrobatic acts.<ref>The chief historian of the Funambules is [[Louis Péricaud]].</ref> It was the home, beginning in 1816, of [[Jean-Gaspard Deburau]] (1796–1846),<ref>On Deburau's life, see Rémy, ''Jean-Gaspard Deburau''; on his pantomime, see Storey, ''Pierrots on the stage'', pp. 7–35, and Nye (2014), Nye (2015-2016), and Nye (2016).</ref> the most famous Pierrot ever. He was immortalized by [[Jean-Louis Barrault]] in [[Marcel Carné]]'s film ''[[Children of Paradise]]'' (1945).

Deburau, from the year 1825, was the only actor at the Funambules to play Pierrot,<ref>Nye (2016), p. 18, n. 12.</ref> and he did so in several types of pantomime: rustic, melodramatic, "realistic", and fantastic.<ref>See Storey, ''Pierrots on the stage'', pp. 15-23.</ref> His style, according to [[Louis Péricaud]], formed "an enormous contrast with the exuberance, the superabundance of gestures, of leaps, that ... his predecessors had employed".<ref>[[Louis Péricaud|Péricaud]], [http://gallica.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/bpt6k204363m/f31.image p. 28]; tr. Storey, ''Pierrots on the stage'', pp. 31–32.</ref> He altered the costume: he dispensed with the frilled collaret, substituted a skullcap for a hat, and greatly increased the wide cut of both blouse and trousers. Deburau's Pierrot avoided the crude Pierrots—timid, sexless, lazy, and greedy—found in earlier pantomime.<ref>On the early Pierrots, see Storey, ''Pierrots on the stage'', pp. 12–13.</ref>

The Funambules Pierrot appealed to audiences in the faery-tale style which incorporate the ''commedia'' types. The plot often hinged on Cassander's pursuit of Harlequin and Columbine, having to deal with a clever and ambiguous Pierrot. Deburau early—about 1828—caught the attention of the [[Romanticism|Romantics]].<ref>For a full discussion of the connection of all these writers with Deburau's Pierrot, see Storey, ''Pierrot: a critical history'', pp. 104, 110–112, and Storey, ''Pierrots on the stage'', pp. 7, 74–151.</ref> In 1842, Théophile Gautier published a fake review of a "Shakespeare" pantomime he claimed to have seen at the Funambules.<ref>{{Cite book |chapter-url=https://www.degruyter.com/document/doi/10.1515/9781400854820.105/html |chapter=IV. Pierrot posthume: Théophile Gautier |date=2014-07-14 |publisher=Princeton University Press |isbn=978-1-4008-5482-0 |language=en |doi=10.1515/9781400854820.105|title=Pierrots on the Stage of Desire |pages=105–126 }}</ref> It placed Pierrot in the company of over-reachers in high literature such as [[Don Juan]] or [[Macbeth (character)|Macbeth]].

===Pantomime after Baptiste: Charles Deburau, Paul Legrand, and their successors===
[[File:Pierrot photographe.jpg|thumb|[[Nadar]]: Charles Deburau as Pierrot, 1854]]
Deburau's son, [[Charles Deburau|Jean-Charles]] (or, as he preferred, "Charles" [1829–1873]), assumed Pierrot's blouse the year after his father died.<ref>See, e.g., Gautier in ''Le Moniteur Universel'', August 30, 1858; tr. Storey, ''Pierrots on the stage'', p. 59.</ref> Another important Pierrot of mid-century was Charles-Dominique-Martin Legrand, known as [[Paul Legrand]] (1816–1898; see photo at top of page). He began appearing at the Funambules as Pierrot in 1845.<ref>Many reviewers of his pantomimes make note of this tendency: see, e.g., Gautier, ''Le Moniteur Universel'', October 15, 1855; July 28, 1856; August 30, 1858; tr. Storey, ''Pierrots on the stage'', pp. 66–68.</ref>

[[File:Ch.Leandre PierrotEtColombine.png|thumb|[[Georges Wague]] in one of the ''cantomimes'' (pantomimes performed to off-stage songs) of [[Xavier Privas]]. Poster by [[Charles Lucien Léandre|Charles Léandre]], 1899.]]
Legrand left the Funambules in 1853 for the [[Folies-Nouvelles]], which attracted the fashionable set, unlike the Funambules' working-class audiences. Legrand often appeared in realistic costume, his chalky face his only concession to tradition, leading some advocates of pantomime, such as Gautier, to lament that he was betraying the character of the type.<ref>On the Folies-Nouvelles, Legrand's pantomime, and Champfleury's relationship to both, see Storey, ''Pierrots on the stage'', pp. 36–73.</ref> Legrand's Pierrot influenced future mimes.

===Pantomime and late 19th-century art===

====France====
;Popular and literary pantomime
[[File:Sarah Bernhardt as Pierrot.jpg|thumb|Atelier Nadar: [[Sarah Bernhardt]] in [[Jean Richepin]]'s ''Pierrot the Murderer'', 1883. Bibliothèque Nationale, Paris.]]
[[File:Poster for Hanlon-Lees' "Superba".jpg|thumb|Anon.: Poster for Hanlon-Lees' ''Superba'', 1890–1911. Theatre Collection of the New York Public Library at Lincoln Center.]]
[[File:Léon Hennique - Pierrot sceptique.jpg|thumb|[[Jules Chéret]]: Title-page of Hennique and [[J.-K. Huysmans|Huysmans]]' ''Pierrot the Skeptic'', 1881]]
[[File:Paul Cézanne, 1888, Mardi gras (Pierrot et Arlequin), oil on canvas, 102 x 81 cm, Pushkin Museum.jpg|thumb|[[Paul Cézanne]]: ''Mardi gras (Pierrot and Harlequin)'', 1888, [[Pushkin Museum]], Moscow]]
In the 1880s and 1890s, the pantomime reached a type of apogee, and Pierrot became ubiquitous.<ref>On late 19th-/early 20th-century French pantomime, see Bonnet, ''La pantomime noire'' and ''Pantomimes fin-de-siècle''; Martinez; Storey, ''Pierrots on the stage'', pp. 253–315; and Rolfe, pp. 143–58.</ref> Moreover, he acquired a female counterpart, Pierrette, who rivaled Columbine for his affections. A [[Cercle Funambulesque]] was founded in 1888, and Pierrot (sometimes played by female mimes, such as [[Félicia Mallet]]) dominated its productions until its demise in 1898.<ref>See Storey, ''Pierrots on the stage'', pp. 284–294.</ref> [[Sarah Bernhardt]] even donned Pierrot's blouse for [[Jean Richepin]]'s ''Pierrot the Murderer'' (1883).

But French mimes and actors were not the only figures responsible for Pierrot's ubiquity: the English Hanlon brothers (sometimes called the [[Hanlon-Lees]]), gymnasts and acrobats who had been schooled in the 1860s in pantomimes from Baptiste's repertoire, traveled (and dazzled) the world well into the 20th century with their pantomimic sketches and extravaganzas featuring riotously nightmarish Pierrots. The [[Naturalism (literature)|Naturalists]]—[[Émile Zola]] especially, who wrote glowingly of them—were captivated by their art.<ref>See Cosdon, p.49.</ref> [[Edmond de Goncourt]] modeled his acrobat-mimes in his ''The Zemganno Brothers'' (1879) upon them; [[J.-K. Huysmans]] (whose ''[[À rebours|Against Nature]]'' [1884] would become [[The Picture of Dorian Gray|Dorian Gray]]'s bible) and his friend [[Léon Hennique]] wrote their pantomime ''[[s:fr:Pierrot sceptique (pantomime)|Pierrot the Skeptic]]'' (1881) after seeing them perform at the Folies Bergère (and, in turn, [[Jules Laforgue]] wrote his pantomime ''Pierrot the Cut-Up'' [''Pierrot fumiste'', 1882]<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.laforgue.org/Pierrot.htm|title=Pierrot fumiste (Jules Laforgue)|website=www.laforgue.org|access-date=2016-07-05}}</ref> after reading the scenario by Huysmans and Hennique).<ref>On the influence of the Hanlons on Goncourt and Huysmans and Hennique, see Storey, ''Pierrots on the stage'', pp. 182–188, 217–222; on the influence of Huysmans/Hennique on Laforgue's pantomime, see Storey, ''Pierrot: a critical history'', p. 145, 154.</ref> It was in part through the enthusiasm that they excited, coupled with the [[Impressionism|Impressionists]]' taste for popular entertainment, such as the circus and the music-hall, as well as the new bohemianism that then reigned in artistic quarters such as [[Montmartre]] (and which was celebrated by such denizens as [[Adolphe Willette]], whose cartoons and canvases are crowded with Pierrots)—it was through all this that Pierrot achieved almost unprecedented currency and visibility towards the end of the century.
;[[File:Affiche Distillerie de la Chabotte, Vins, liqueurs & spiritueux voor stokerij J. Fairon.jpg|thumb|Affiche Distillerie de la Chabotte, Vins, liqueurs & spiritueux voor stokerij J. Fairon, collectie Jenevermuseum Hasselt]]Visual arts, fiction, poetry, music, and film
He invaded the visual arts<ref>See Lawner; Kellein; also the plates in Palacio, and the plates and tailpieces in Storey's two books.</ref>—not only in the work of Willette, but also in the illustrations and posters of [[Jules Chéret]];<ref>For posters by Willette, Chéret, and many other late 19th-century artists, see Maindron.</ref> in the engravings of [[Odilon Redon]] (''The Swamp Flower: A Sad Human Head'' [1885]); and in the canvases of [[Georges Seurat]] (''Pierrot with a White Pipe [Aman-Jean]'' [1883]; ''The Painter Aman-Jean as Pierrot'' [1883]), [[Léon Comerre]] (''Pierrot'' [1884], ''Pierrot Playing the Mandolin'' [1884]), [[Henri Rousseau]] (''A Carnival Night'' [1886]), [[Paul Cézanne]] (''Mardi gras [Pierrot and Harlequin]'' [1888]), [[Fernand Pelez]] (''Grimaces and Miseries'' a.k.a. ''The Saltimbanques'' [1888]), [[Pablo Picasso]] (''Pierrot and Columbine'' [1900]), [[Guillaume Seignac]] (''Pierrot's Embrace'' [1900]), [[Théophile Steinlen]] (''Pierrot and the Cat'' [1889]), and [[Édouard Vuillard]] (''The Black Pierrot'' [c. 1890]). The mime "Tombre" of [[Jean Richepin]]'s novel ''Nice People'' (''Braves Gens'' [1886]) turned him into a pathetic and alcoholic "phantom"; [[Paul Verlaine]] imagined him as a gormandizing naïf in "Pantomime" (1869), then, like Tombre, as a lightning-lit specter in "Pierrot" (1868, pub. 1882).<ref>For a full discussion of Verlaine's many versions of Pierrot, see Storey, ''Pierrots on the stage'', pp. 230-52.</ref> [[Jules Laforgue|Laforgue]] put three of the "complaints" of his first published volume of poems (1885) into "Lord" Pierrot's mouth—and dedicated his next book, ''[[L'Imitation de Notre-Dame la Lune|The Imitation of Our Lady the Moon]]'' (1886), completely to Pierrot and his world (Pierrots were legion among the minor, now-forgotten poets: for samples, see Willette's journal ''The Pierrot'', which appeared between 1888 and 1889, then again in 1891). In the realm of song, [[Claude Debussy]] set both Verlaine's "Pantomime" and [[Théodore de Banville|Banville]]'s "Pierrot" (1842) to music in 1881 (not published until 1926)—the only precedents among works by major composers being the "Pierrot" section of [[Telemann]]'s ''Burlesque Overture'' (1717–22), [[Mozart]]'s 1783 "Masquerade" (in which Mozart himself took the role of Harlequin and his brother-in-law, [[Joseph Lange]], that of Pierrot),<ref>{{harvnb|Deutsch|1966|p=213}}. The score, which is fragmentary, exists as K. 446.</ref> and the "Pierrot" section of [[Robert Schumann]]'s ''Carnival'' (1835).<ref>Debussy may have added the operetta ''Mon ami Pierrot'' (1862) by [[Léo Delibes]], whom he admired, to this list. He probably would have excluded [[Jacques Offenbach]]'s ''Pierrot Clown'', a theater score of 1855.</ref> Even the embryonic art of the motion picture turned to Pierrot before the century was out: he appeared, not only in early celluloid shorts ([[Georges Méliès]]'s ''[[A Nightmare]]'' [1896], ''[[The Magician (1898 film)|The Magician]]'' [1898]; [[Alice Guy]]'s ''Arrival of Pierrette and Pierrot'' [1900], ''Pierrette's Amorous Adventures'' [1900]; Ambroise-François Parnaland's ''Pierrot's Big Head/Pierrot's Tongue'' [1900], ''Pierrot-Drinker'' [1900]), but also in [[Emile Reynaud]]'s [[Praxinoscope]] production of ''[[Pauvre Pierrot|Poor Pierrot]]'' (1892), the first animated movie and the first hand-colored one.

====Belgium====
In Belgium, [[Félicien Rops]] depicted a grinning Pierrot who witnesses an unromantic backstage scene (''Blowing Cupid's Nose'' [1881]). [[James Ensor]] painted Pierrots obsessively, in various poses from prostrate to bowing his head in despondency, sometimes even with a smiling skeleton. The Belgian poet and dramatist [[Albert Giraud]] also identified with the Zanni: the fifty [[Rondel (poem)|rondels]] of his ''[[Pierrot lunaire (book)|Pierrot lunaire]]'' (''Moonstruck Pierrot,'' 1884) inspired generations of composers (see '''''[[#Pierrot lunaire|Pierrot lunaire]]''''' below), and his verse-play ''Pierrot-Narcissus'' (1887) offered a definitive portrait of the poet-dreamer. The choreographer [[Joseph Hansen (dancer)|Joseph Hansen]] staged the ballet ''Macabre Pierrot'' in 1884 in collaboration with the poet [[Théodore Hannon|Théo Hannon]].

====England====
[[Image:Aubrey Beardsley - Death of Pierrot.jpg|thumb|[[Aubrey Beardsley]]: "The Death of Pierrot", ''[[The Savoy (periodical)|The Savoy]]'', August 1896]]
Pierrot figured prominently in the drawings of [[Aubrey Beardsley]], and various writers referenced him in their poetry.<ref>{{Cite book|last=Dobson|first=Austin|author-link=Henry Austin Dobson|chapter=After Watteau|chapter-url=https://archive.org/stream/collectedpoems01dobsgoog#page/n490/mode/2up|title=Collected Poems|year=1913|page=476|edition=9th|publisher=[[E.P. Dutton & Company]]|location=New York|via=[[Internet Archive]]|access-date=2016-07-01}}  Poem first published in December 1893 number of [[Harper's Magazine]].</ref><ref>{{Cite book|last=Symons|first=Arthur|author-link=Arthur Symons|chapter=Pierrot in Half-Mourning|chapter-url=https://archive.org/stream/silhouettes00symogoog#page/n116/mode/2up|title=Silhouettes; and, London nights|year=1896|publisher=[[Leonard Smithers]]|location=London|page=90|edition=2nd|via=Internet Archive|access-date=2016-07-01}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book|last=Custance|first=Olive|author-link=Olive Custance|chapter=Pierrot|chapter-url=https://archive.org/stream/TheYellowBookAnIllustratedQuarterly/YellowBookAnIllustratedQuarterly1897bVolXiii.April#page/n127/mode/2up|title=The Yellow Book, An Illustrated Quarterly|year=1897|volume=XIII|page=121|via=Internet Archive|access-date=2016-07-01}}</ref> Ethel Wright painted ''Bonjour, Pierrot!'' (a greeting to a dour clown sitting disconsolate with his dog) in 1893. The Pierrot of popular taste also spawned a uniquely English entertainment. In 1891, the singer and banjoist [[Clifford Essex]], resolved to create a troupe of English Pierrot entertainers,<ref>{{Cite web |url=http://www.prom-prom.com/tony-lidington/radio/pierrot-hero-clifford-essex/ |title="Pierrot Hero: The Memoirs of Clifford Essex". |access-date=1 June 2019 |archive-date=1 June 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190601070749/http://www.prom-prom.com/tony-lidington/radio/pierrot-hero-clifford-essex/ |url-status=dead }}</ref> and called them the [[Concert Party (entertainment)|seaside Pierrots]] who, as late as the 1950s, performed on the piers of [[Brighton]], [[Margate]], and [[Blackpool]].<ref>See Calvert, Pertwee.</ref> They inspired the Will Morris Pierrots, named after their [[Birmingham]] founder. They originated in the [[Smethwick]] area in the late 1890s and played to large audiences in [[the Midlands]]. [[Walter Westley Russell]] committed these performers to canvas in ''The Pierrots'' (c. 1900).

Pierrot's mask claimed the attention of the great theater innovator [[Edward Gordon Craig]].<ref>Craig, p. 89.</ref> Craig's involvement with the figure grew with time. In 1897, Craig, dressed as Pierrot, gave a quasi-impromptu stage-reading of [[Hans Christian Andersen]]'s story "What the Moon Saw" as part of a benefit performance for theater artists in need.<ref>[[Martin Shaw (composer)|Martin Shaw]], [http://www.martinshawmusic.com/articles/egc_how_we_met.html ''How We Met&mdash;Edward Gordon Craig and Martin Shaw''].</ref>

====Austria and Germany====
Although he lamented that "the Pierrot figure was inherently alien to the German-speaking world", the playwright [[Franz Blei]] introduced him enthusiastically into his playlet ''The Kissy-Face: A Columbiade'' (1895), and his fellow-Austrians [[Richard Specht]] and [[Richard Beer-Hofmann]] made an effort to naturalize Pierrot—in their plays ''Pierrot-Hunchback'' (1896) and ''Pierrot-Hypnotist'' (1892, first pub. 1984), respectively—by linking his fortunes with those of [[Goethe]]'s Faust.<ref>Vilain, pp. 69, 77, 79.</ref> Still others among their countrymen simply sidestepped the issue of naturalization: [[Hermann Bahr]] took his inspiration for his ''Pantomime of the Good Man'' (1893) directly from his encounter with the exclusively French [[Cercle Funambulesque]]; Rudolf Holzer set the action of his ''Puppet Loyalty'' (1899), unapologetically, in a fabulous Paris; and [[Karl Michael von Levetzow]] settled his ''Two Pierrots'' (1900) in the birthplace of Pierrot's comedy, Italy.<ref>Toepfer, [https://karltoepfer.com/2019/06/30/germanic-pantomime-pierrot-in-vienna/ "Germanic Pantomime: Pierrot in Vienna"], n.p. (pp. 731-32, 742-44 in PDF download)</ref>

[[File:Paul Hoecker-Pierrot mit Pfeifen.jpg|thumb|[[Paul Hoecker]]: ''Pierrots with Pipes'', {{circa|1900}}. Location unknown.]]
In Germany, [[Frank Wedekind]] introduced the ''[[femme-fatale]]'' of his first "Lulu" play, ''[[Earth Spirit (play)|Earth Spirit]]'' (1895), in a Pierrot costume. In a similar spirit, the painter [[Paul Hoecker]] put cheeky young men into Pierrot costumes to ape their complacent burgher elders in ''Pierrots with Pipes'' ({{circa|1900}}) and swilling champagne in ''Waiting Woman'' ({{circa|1895}}).

====Italy====
Canio's Pagliaccio in the famous [[Pagliacci|opera]] (1892) by [[Leoncavallo]] is close enough to a Pierrot to deserve a mention here. Much less well-known is the work of two other composers—[[Mario Pasquale Costa]] and [[Vittorio Monti]].  Costa's pantomime ''L'Histoire d'un Pierrot'' (''Story of a Pierrot''), which debuted in Paris in 1893, was so admired in its day that it eventually reached audiences on several continents, was paired with ''[[Cavalleria Rusticana]]'' by New York's Metropolitan Opera Company in 1909, and was premiered as a film by [[Baldassarre Negroni]] in 1914.<ref>Sansone, n.p.</ref> Its libretto, like that of Monti's "mimodrama" ''Noël de Pierrot'' a.k.a. ''A Clown's Christmas'' (1900), was written by Fernand Beissier, one of the founders of the [[Cercle Funambulesque]].<ref>Storey, ''Pierrots on the stage'', p. 286</ref> (Monti would go on to acquire his own fame by celebrating another spiritual outsider much akin to Pierrot—the [[Romani people|Gypsy]]. His ''[[Csárdás (Monti)|Csárdás]]'' [c. 1904], like ''[[Pagliacci]]'', has found a secure place in the standard musical repertoire).

The portrait and [[Genre painting|genre]] painter [[Vittorio Matteo Corcos]] produced ''Portrait of Boy in Pierrot Costume'' in 1897.

====Spain====
In 1895, the playwright and future [[Nobel Prize in Literature|Nobel]] laureate [[Jacinto Benavente]] wrote rapturously in his journal of a performance of the [[Hanlon-Lees]],<ref>{{harvnb|Peral Vega|2015|pp=17–18}}.</ref> and three years later he published his only pantomime: ''The Whiteness of Pierrot''. A true [[fin de siècle]] mask, Pierrot paints his face black to commit robbery and murder; then, after restoring his pallor, he hides himself, terrified of his own undoing, in a snowbank&mdash;forever. Thus does he forfeit his union with Columbine (the intended beneficiary of his crimes) for a frosty marriage with the moon.<ref>{{harvnb|Peral Vega|2015|p=18}}</ref>

====North America====
Pierrot and his fellow masks were late in coming to the United States, which, unlike England, Russia, and the countries of continental Europe, had had no early exposure to commedia dell'arte.<ref>It is in part for this reason—that Pierrot was a late and somewhat alien import to America—that the early poems of '''[[T.S. Eliot]]''' that were closely modeled on the Pierrot poems of [[Jules Laforgue]] do not allude to Pierrot by name. See Storey, ''Pierrot: a critical history'', pp. 156-67.</ref> The [[Hanlon-Lees]] made their first U.S. appearance in 1858, and their subsequent tours, well into the 20th century, of scores of cities throughout the country accustomed their audiences to their fantastic, acrobatic Pierrots.<ref>For an exhaustive account of the Hanlons' appearances in America (and elsewhere), see Mark Cosdon, [http://docplayer.net/4059524-A-chronological-outline-of-the-hanlon-brothers-1833-1931-mark-cosdon-allegheny-college.html "A Chronological Outline of the Hanlon Brothers, 1833-1931".]</ref> But the Pierrot that would leave the deepest imprint upon the American imagination was that of the French and English [[Decadent movement|Decadents]], a creature who quickly found his home in the so-called [[little magazine]]s of the 1890s (as well as in the poster-art that they spawned). One of the earliest and most influential of these in America, ''[[The Chap-Book]]'' (1894–98), which featured a story about Pierrot by the aesthete [[Percival Pollard]] in its second number,<ref>"For a Jest's Sake" (1894).</ref> was soon host to Beardsley-inspired Pierrots drawn by E.B. Bird and Frank Hazenplug<ref>See reproductions (in poster form) in Margolin, pp. 110, 111.</ref> (the Canadian poet [[Bliss Carman]] should also be mentioned for his contribution to Pierrot's dissemination in mass-market publications such as ''[[Harper's Magazine|Harper's]]'').<ref>Carman's "The Last Room. From the Departure of Pierrot" appeared originally in the August 1899 number of ''Harper's''; it is reprinted (as "The Last Room") in {{Cite web|url=https://archive.org/stream/balladsandlyric00carmgoog#page/n87/mode/2up/search/columbine|title=Ballads and Lyrics|website=archive.org|access-date=2016-04-20}}</ref> Like most things associated with the Decadence, such exotica discombobulated the mainstream American public, which regarded the little magazines in general as "freak periodicals" and declared, through one of its mouthpieces, ''[[Munsey's Magazine]]'', that "each new representative of the species is, if possible, more preposterous than the last".<ref>Summer issue, 1896; cited in Margolin, p. 37.</ref> And yet the Pierrot of that species was gaining a foothold elsewhere. The composers [[Amy Beach]] and [[Arthur Foote]] devoted a section to Pierrot (as well as to Pierrette, his Decadent counterpart) in two ludic pieces for piano—Beach's ''Children's Carnival'' (1894) and Foote's ''Five Bagatelles'' (1893).

The fin de siècle world in which this Pierrot resided was clearly at odds with the reigning American Realist and Naturalist aesthetic (although such figures as [[Ambrose Bierce]] and [[John LaFarge]] were mounting serious challenges to it). It is in fact jarring to find the champion of American prose Realism, [[William Dean Howells]], introducing ''Pastels in Prose'' (1890), a volume of French [[Prose poetry|prose-poems]] containing a [[Paul Margueritte]] pantomime, ''The Death of Pierrot'',<ref>It also contains a short tale of Pierrot by Paul Leclercq, "A Story in White".</ref> with words of warm praise (and even congratulations to each poet for failing "to saddle his reader with a moral").<ref>Merrill, [https://archive.org/stream/pastelsinprose00merrgoog#page/n10/mode/2up p. vii]</ref> So uncustomary was the French Aesthetic viewpoint that, when Pierrot made an appearance in ''Pierrot the Painter'' (1893),<ref>[https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1894/02/16/106093868.pdf "Mr. Sargent's Pupils Again"], ''New York Times'', February 16, 1894.</ref> a pantomime by [[Alfred Thompson (librettist)|Alfred Thompson]], set to music by the American composer [[Laura Sedgwick Collins]], ''The New York Times'' covered it as an event, although it was only a student production. It was found to be "pleasing" because, in part, it was "odd".<ref>[https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1893/12/08/109271203.pdf "Pierrot at Berkeley Lyceum"], ''New York Times'', December 8, 1893.</ref> Not until the first decade of the next century, when the great (and popular) fantasist [[Maxfield Parrish]] worked his magic on the figure, would Pierrot be comfortably naturalized in America.

Of course, writers from the United States living abroad—especially in Paris or London—were aberrantly susceptible to the charms of the Decadence. Such a figure was [[Stuart Merrill]], who consorted with the French [[Symbolism (arts)|Symbolists]] and who compiled and translated the pieces in ''Pastels in Prose''. Another was [[William Theodore Peters]], an acquaintance of [[Ernest Dowson]] and other members of the [[Rhymers' Club]] and a driving force behind the conception and theatrical realization of Dowson's ''Pierrot of the Minute'' (1897; see '''[[#England 2|England]]''' above). Of the three books that Peters published before his death (of starvation)<ref>Muddiman,  [https://archive.org/stream/menofnineties00muddiala#page/96/mode/2up p. 97].</ref> at the age of forty-two, his ''Posies out of Rings: And Other Conceits'' (1896) is most notable here: in it, four poems and an "Epilogue" for the aforementioned Dowson play are devoted to Pierrot  (from the mouth of Pierrot ''loquitur'': "Although this pantomime of life is passing fine,/Who would be happy must not marry Columbine").<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://archive.org/stream/posiesoutofrings00peteiala#page/6/mode/2up|title=Posies out of rings, and other conceits|website=archive.org|year=1896|access-date=2016-07-01}}</ref>

Another pocket of North-American sympathy with the Decadence—one manifestation of what the Latin world called ''[[modernismo]]''—could be found in the progressive literary scene of Mexico, its parent country, Spain, having been long conversant with the commedia dell'arte. In 1897, [[:es:Bernardo Couto Castillo|Bernardo Couto Castillo]], another Decadent who, at the age of twenty-two, died even more tragically young than Peters, embarked on a series of Pierrot-themed short—"Pierrot Enamored of Glory" (1897), "Pierrot and His Cats" (1898), "The Nuptials of Pierrot" (1899), "Pierrot's Gesture" (1899), "The Caprices of Pierrot" (1900)—culminating, after the turn of the century (and in the year of Couto's death), with "Pierrot-Gravedigger" (1901).<ref>All collected in Muñoz Fernández.</ref> For the Spanish-speaking world, according to scholar Emilio Peral Vega, Couto "expresses that first manifestation of Pierrot as an alter ego in a game of symbolic otherness ...".<ref>{{harvnb|Peral Vega|2015|p=19}}.</ref>

====Central and South America====
Inspired by the French [[Symbolism (arts)|Symbolists]], especially Verlaine, [[Rubén Darío]], the Nicaraguan poet widely acknowledged as the founder of Spanish-American literary [[modernism]] (''modernismo''), placed Pierrot ("sad poet and dreamer") in opposition to Columbine ("fatal woman", the arch-materialistic "lover of rich silk garments, golden jewelry, pearls and diamonds")<ref>{{harvnb|Sarabia|1987|p=78}}.</ref> in his 1898 prose-poem ''The Eternal Adventure of Pierrot and Columbine''.

====Russia====
In the last year of the century, Pierrot appeared in a Russian ballet, ''[[Les Millions d'Arlequin|Harlequin's Millions]]'' a.k.a. ''Harlequinade'' (1900), its libretto and choreography by [[Marius Petipa]], its music by [[Riccardo Drigo]], its dancers the members of St. Petersburg's [[Mariinsky Ballet|Imperial Ballet]]. It would set the stage for the later and greater triumphs of Pierrot in the productions of the [[Ballets Russes]].

==19th-century legacy==
The Pierrot bequeathed to the 20th century had acquired a rich and wide range of personae. He was the naïve butt of practical jokes and amorous scheming (Gautier); the prankish but innocent waif (Banville, Verlaine, Willette); the narcissistic dreamer clutching at the moon, which could symbolize many things, from spiritual perfection to death (Giraud, Laforgue, Willette, Dowson); the frail, [[Neurasthenia|neurasthenic]], often doom-ridden soul (Richepin, Beardsley); the clumsy, although ardent, lover, who wins Columbine's heart,<ref>This is the case in many works by minor writers of the ''fin-de-siècle''—e.g., Léo Rouanet, ''The Belly and Heart of Pierrot'' (1888), summarized in Storey, ''Pierrots on the stage'', pp. 299–300.</ref> or murders her in frustration (Margueritte); the cynical and misogynistic [[dandy]], sometimes dressed in black (Huysmans/Hennique, Laforgue); the Christ-like victim of the martyrdom that is Art (Giraud, Willette, Ensor); the androgynous and unholy creature of corruption (Richepin, Wedekind); the madcap master of chaos (the Hanlon-Lees); the purveyor of hearty and wholesome fun (the English pier Pierrots)—and various combinations of these. Like the earlier masks of commedia dell'arte, Pierrot now knew no national boundaries. Thanks to the international gregariousness of modernism, he would soon be found everywhere.<ref>See Green and Swan.</ref>

==Pierrot and modernism==
{{Main|Cultural references to Pierrot}}
Pierrot played a seminal role in the emergence of [[modernism]] in the arts. He was a key figure in every art-form except architecture.

With respect to '''poetry''', [[T. S. Eliot]]'s "breakthrough work",<ref>{{harvnb|Kerrigan|2015|p=66}}.</ref> "[[The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock]]" (1915), owed its existence to the poems of [[Jules Laforgue]], whose ''"ton 'pierrot'"''<ref>"Pierrot-like tone": Taupin, p. 277. 
 Cf. the words of critic [[Arthur Symons]]: "His [i.e., Laforgue's] laughter, which [[Maurice Maeterlinck|Maeterlinck]] has defined so admirably as 'the laughter of the soul', is the laughter of Pierrot, more than half a sob, and shaken out of him with a deplorable gesture of the thin arms, thrown wide. He is a metaphysical Pierrot, a ''Pierrot lunaire'' ..."  ([https://archive.org/stream/symbolistmovemen00symouoft#page/304/mode/2up/search/Pierrot p. 304]). Eliot read these words in his 1908 edition of Symons' ''Symbolist Movement in Literature'', which [[The Symbolist Movement in Literature#Influence|introduced him]] to Laforgue.</ref> informed all of Eliot's early poetry.<ref>"The form in which I began to write, in 1908 or 1909, was directly drawn from the study of Laforgue ...": Eliot, in his Introduction to the ''Selected Poems'' of Ezra Pound; cited in Storey, ''Pierrot: a critical history'', p. 156.</ref> (Laforgue, he said, "was the first to teach me how to speak, to teach me the poetic possibilities of my own idiom of speech.")<ref>Lecture at the Italian Institute in London, 1950; cited in Storey, ''Pierrot: a critical history'', p. 156.</ref> Prufrock is a Pierrot transplanted to America.<ref>See Storey, ''Pierrot: a critical history'', pp. 163-66.</ref>  Another prominent Modernist, [[Wallace Stevens]], was undisguised in his identification with Pierrot in his earliest poems and letters—an identification that he later complicated and refined through such avatars as Bowl (in ''Bowl, Cat and Broomstick'' [1917]), Carlos (in ''Carlos Among the Candles'' [1917]), and, most importantly, Crispin (in "The Comedian as the Letter C" [1923]).<ref>See Storey, ''Pierrot: a critical history'', pp. 167-93.</ref>

As for '''fiction''', [[William Faulkner]] began his career as a chronicler of Pierrot's amorous disappointments and existential anguish in such little-known works as his play ''The Marionettes'' (1920) and the verses of his ''Vision in Spring'' (1921), works that were an early and revealing declaration of the novelist's "fragmented state"<ref>"Pierrot was Faulkner's fictional representation of his fragmented state": Sensibar, p. xvii.</ref> (some critics have argued that Pierrot stands behind the semi-autobiographical [[Nick Adams (character)|Nick Adams]] of Faulkner's fellow-[[Nobel Prize in Literature|Nobel]] laureate [[Ernest Hemingway]],<ref>Green and Swan, p. 52.</ref> and another contends that [[James Joyce]]'s [[Stephen Dedalus]], again an avatar of his own creator, also shares the same parentage).<ref>Dick, pp. 69-80.</ref>

In '''music''', historians of modernism generally place [[Arnold Schoenberg]]'s 1912 song-cycle ''[[Pierrot lunaire]]'' at the very pinnacle of high-modernist achievement.<ref>"Wherever we look in the history of its reception, whether in general histories of the modern period, in more ephemeral press response, in the comments of musical leaders such as [[Igor Stravinsky|Stravinsky]] or [[Pierre Boulez|Boulez]], in pedagogical sources, or in specialized research studies, the overwhelming reaction to ''Pierrot'' has been an awestruck veneration of its originality": Dunsby, p. 1.</ref> And in '''ballet''', [[Igor Stravinsky]]'s [[Petrushka (ballet)|Petrushka]] (1911), in which the traditionally [[Pulcinella]]-like clown wears the heart of Pierrot,<ref>{{harvnb|Clayton|1993|p=137}}; see also "[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x42PyU3SM6U Two Clowns: Pierrot meets Petrushka]" by the Israeli Chamber Project.</ref> is often argued to have attained the same stature.<ref>"... [A]s one of the greatest ballets [''Petrushka''] remains unassailed": Robert, p. 231.</ref>

Students of modernist '''painting''' and '''sculpture''' are familiar with Pierrot (in many different attitudes, from the ineffably sad to the ebulliently impudent) through the masterworks of his acolytes, including [[Pablo Picasso]], [[Juan Gris]], [[Georges Rouault]], [[Salvador Dalí]], [[Max Beckmann]], [[August Macke]], [[Paul Klee]], [[Jacques Lipchitz]]—the list is very long (see '''[[#Visual arts|Visual arts]]''' below).

As for the '''drama''', Pierrot was a regular fixture in the plays of the [[Little Theatre Movement]] ([[Edna St. Vincent Millay]]'s ''Aria da Capo'' [1920], Robert Emmons Rogers' ''Behind a Watteau Picture'' [1918], Blanche Jennings Thompson's ''The Dream Maker'' [1922]),<ref>For direct access to these works, go to the footnotes following their titles in [[#Plays, playlets, pantomimes, and revues|Plays, playlets, pantomimes, and revues]] below.</ref> which nourished the careers of such important Modernists as [[Eugene O'Neill]], [[Susan Glaspell]], and others.

In '''film''', a beloved early comic hero was the [[The Tramp|Little Tramp]] of [[Charlie Chaplin]], who conceived the character, in Chaplin's words, as "a sort of Pierrot".<ref>{{harvnb|Chaplin|1966|p=224}}.</ref>

As the diverse incarnations of the 19th-century Pierrot would predict, the hallmarks of the modernist Pierrot are his ambiguity and complexity.

One of his earliest appearances was in [[Alexander Blok]]'s ''The Puppet Show'' (1906), called by one theater-historian "the greatest example of the harlequinade in Russia".<ref>{{harvnb|Clayton|1993|p=145}}.</ref> [[Vsevolod Meyerhold]], who both directed the first production and took on the role, dramatically emphasized the multifacetedness of the character: according to one spectator, Meyerhold's Pierrot was "nothing like those familiar, falsely sugary, whining Pierrots. Everything about him is sharply angular; in a hushed voice he whispers strange words of sadness; somehow he contrives to be caustic, heart-rending, gentle: all these things yet at the same time impudent."<ref>Cited in Green and Swan, p. 91.</ref>

==''Pierrot lunaire''==
{{Main|Pierrot lunaire (book)}}
The fifty poems that were published by [[Albert Giraud]] (born Emile Albert Kayenbergh) as ''[[Pierrot lunaire (book)|Pierrot lunaire: Rondels bergamasques]]'' in 1884 were set to music several times. The best known version is by [[Arnold Schoenberg]], i.e., his Opus 21: ''Dreimal sieben Gedichte aus Albert Girauds'' [[Pierrot lunaire]] (''Thrice-Seven Poems from Albert Giraud's'' Pierrot lunaire—Schoenberg was numerologically superstitious). This led, among other things, to ensemble groups' appropriating Pierrot's name, such as the English [[Pierrot Players]] (1967–70).<ref>{{harvnb|Hall|2015|pp=72–77}}.</ref> The Pierrot behind those cycles has invaded worlds well beyond those of composers, singers, and ensemble-performers. Theatrical groups such as the [[Opera Quotannis]] have brought Pierrot's [[Passion (Christianity)|Passion]] to the dramatic stage; dancers such as [[Glen Tetley]] have choreographed it; poets such as [[Wayne Koestenbaum]] have derived original inspiration from it.<ref>The Opera Quotannis production (with Christine Schadeberg) was premiered in 1995; Tetley's [http://www.abt.org/education/archive/ballets/pierrot_lunaire.html ballet] ({{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20151008020738/http://www.abt.org/education/archive/ballets/pierrot_lunaire.html |date=2015-10-08 }}) was first performed in 1962; Koestenbaum's ten ''Pierrot Lunaire'' poems appeared in his ''Best-Selling Jewish Porn Films'' (New York: Turtle Point Press, 2006).</ref> It has been translated into still more distant media by painters, such as [[Paul Klee]]; fiction-writers, such as Helen Stevenson; filmmakers, such as [[Bruce LaBruce]]; and graphic-novelists, such as Antoine Dodé.<ref>Klee's portrait dates from 1924; Stevenson is the author of the novel ''Pierrot Lunaire'' (London: Sceptre, 1995); Bruce LaBruce's Canadian/German film ''Pierrot Lunaire'' was released in 2014; and in 2011 Dodé published the first volume of his projected trilogy, ''Pierrot Lunaire''.</ref> A passionately sinister Pierrot Lunaire has even shadowed DC Comics' [[Batman]].<ref>The character made his first appearance in issue #676: ''Batman R.I.P.: Midnight in the House of Hurt'' (2008); he resumed his role in ten other issues.</ref> Pierrot is aptly honored in the title of a song by the British rock-group [[Soft Machine|The Soft Machine]]: "Thank You Pierrot Lunaire" (1969).<ref>From the album ''[[Volume Two (The Soft Machine album)|Volume Two]]''.</ref>

==Carnivals==
Pierrot appears among the revelers at various international carnivals. His name suggests kinship with the Pierrot Grenade of [[Trinidad and Tobago Carnival]], being a satire on the richer and more respectable Pierrot. Pierrot Grenade was a finely dressed masquerader and deeply supreme scholar/jester proud of his ability to spell any word in his own fashion and quoting Shakespearean characters as Julius Caesar, Mark Anthony, and Othello at length.

==See also==
* [[Commedia dell'arte]]
* [[Columbina|Columbine]]
* [[Clown]]
* [[Hanswurst]] – a stock character of German travelling theater
* [[Pickelhering]] – a 17th-century stock [[Comic relief|buffoon]] character originating in German travelling theater

==Notes and references==
{{Reflist}}

==Bibliography==
{{refbegin|30em}}
* {{Cite book |last=Adams|first=Jad |title=Madder music, stronger wine: the life of Ernest Dowson, poet and decadent |publisher=Tauris Parke Paperbacks |location=London |year=2002 |isbn=1860647146 }}
* {{cite book|last=Andrews|first=Richard|year=2008|title=The Commedia dell'Arte of Flaminio Scala: a translation and analysis of 30 scenarios|location=Lanham, Maryland|publisher=The Scarecrow Press|isbn=9780810862074}}
* {{cite book|last=Barberet|first=Vincent|year=1887|title=Lesage et le Théâtre de la Foire|location=Nancy|publisher=P. Sordoillet}}
* {{cite book|last=Bonnassies|first=Jules|year=1875|title=Les spectacles forains et la Comédie-Française ...|location=Paris|publisher=E. Dentu}}
* {{Cite book |editor=Bonnet, Gilles |title=Pantomimes fin-de-siècle |publisher=Kimé |location=Paris |year=2008 |isbn=978-2841744473 }}
* {{Cite book |author=Bonnet, Gilles |title=La pantomime noire: 1836-1896 |publisher=Hermann |location=Paris |year=2014 |isbn=978-2705688844 }}
* {{Cite book |last=Bordet|first=Daniel |title=Les 100 plus belles images de Pierrot |publisher=Musée Cointreau |location=Paris |year=2003 |isbn=2952035113 }}
* [[Reinhold Brinkmann|Brinkmann, Reinhold]] (1997). "The fool as paradigm: Schoenberg's ''Pierrot Lunaire'' and the modern artist". In {{Cite book |editor=Boehmer, Konrad |title=Schoenberg and Kandinsky: an historic encounter |publisher=Harwood Academic Publishers |location=Amsterdam |year=1997 |isbn=9057020467 }}
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* Campardon, Emile (1877). ''Les spectacles de la Foire ...: documents inédits recueillis aux archives nationales''. 2 vols. Paris: Berger-Levrault et C<sup>ie</sup>. Vol. [https://archive.org/details/lesspectaclesde00campgoog I] at Archive.org.  Vol. [http://gallica.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/bpt6k108375m II] at Gallica Books.
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* {{cite journal|last=Carr|first=Andrew T.|date= March 1956|title=Pierrot Grenade|journal=Caribbean Quarterly|volume=4|issue=3/4|pages=281–314|doi=10.1080/00086495.1956.11829678}}
*[https://archive.org/details/souvenirsdefuna00chamgoog Champfleury (Jules-François-Félix Husson, called Fleury, called) (1859). ''Souvenirs des Funambules''. Paris: Lévy Frères.]
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* {{Cite book |last=Clayton |first=J. Douglas |title=Pierrot in Petrograd: Commedia dell'Arte/''Balagan'' in twentieth-century Russian theatre and drama |url=https://archive.org/details/pierrotinpetrogr0000clay |url-access=registration |publisher=[[McGill-Queen's University Press]] |location=Montreal |year=1993 |isbn=0773511369 }}
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* {{Cite book |last=Palacio |first=Jean de |title=Pierrot fin-de-siècle, ou, Les métamorphoses d'un masque |publisher=Séguier |location=Paris |year=1990 |isbn=287736089X |url-access=registration |url=https://archive.org/details/pierrotfindesiec0000pala }}
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* {{wikicite|ref={{harvid|Robert|1946}}|reference=Robert, Grace (1946). ''The Borzoi book of ballets''. New York: Alfred A. Knopf.}}
* Rolfe, Bari (1978). "Magic century of French mime". ''Mime, mask & marionette''. '''1''' (3: fall): 135-58.
* {{Cite book |last=Rudlin|first=John |title=Commedia dell'Arte: an actor's handbook |publisher=Routledge |location=London |year=1994 |isbn=0-415-04770-6 }}
* Salerno, Henry F., tr. (1967). ''Scenarios of the Commedia dell'Arte: Flaminio Scala's'' Il teatro delle favole rappresentative. New York: New York University Press.
* [[Maurice Sand|Sand, Maurice]] (Jean-François-Maurice-Arnauld, Baron Dudevant, called) (1915). ''The history of the harlequinade'' [orig. ''Masques et bouffons''. 2 vols. Paris: Michel Lévy Frères, 1860]. Philadelphia: Lippincott.
* {{cite journal|last=Sansone|first=Matteo|date=2017|title=Pierrot: a silent witness of changing times|journal=Voyages: Journal of Contemporary Humanism|volume=6|issue=winter|pages=unpaginated|url=http://voyagesjournal.org/pierrot-silent-witness-changing-times/#post-900-endnote-ref-18|access-date=2020-08-15|archive-date=2020-09-22|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200922080158/http://voyagesjournal.org/pierrot-silent-witness-changing-times/#post-900-endnote-ref-18|url-status=dead}}
* {{cite journal|last=Sarabia|first=Rosa|date=Fall 1987|title=Dario y Lugones: dos visiones modernistas de Pierrot|journal=Latin American Theatre Review|volume=21|issue=1|pages=75–83}} 
* {{Cite book |last=Sensibar |first=Judith L. |title=The origins of Faulkner's art |publisher=University of Texas Press |location=Austin, TX |year=1984 |isbn=0292790201 |url=https://archive.org/details/originsoffaulkne00sens_0 }}
* Séverin (Séverin Cafferra, called) (1929). ''L'Homme Blanc: souvenirs d'un Pierrot''. Introduction et notes par Gustave Fréjaville. Paris: Plon.
* {{cite book|last=Starobinski|first=Jean|author-link=Jean Starobinski|year=1970|title=Portrait de l'artiste en saltimbanque|location=Geneva|publisher=Skira}}
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* {{Cite book |last=Storey |first=Robert F. |title=Pierrot: a critical history of a mask |publisher=Princeton University Press |location=Princeton, NJ |year=1978a |isbn=0-691-06374-5 |url=https://archive.org/details/pierrotcriticalh0000stor }}
* {{cite journal|last=Storey|first=Robert|date=Fall 1978|title=Shakespeare at the Funambules: a translation of Théophile Gautier's 'Shakspeare aux Funambules' and a commentary|journal=Mime, Mask & Marionette|volume=1|issue=3|pages=159–79}}
* {{Cite book |last=Storey|first=Robert |title=Pierrots on the stage of desire: nineteenth-century French literary artists and the comic pantomime |publisher=Princeton University Press |location=Princeton, NJ |year=1985 |isbn=0-691-06628-0 }}
* Švehla, Jaroslav (1977). "Jean Gaspard Deburau: the immortal Pierrot". Tr. Paul Wilson. ''Mime Journal'': 5 (this journal-length article is a translated condensation of Švehla's book-length study ''Deburau, nieśmiertelny Pierrot'' [Prague: Melantrich, 1976]).
* [https://archive.org/stream/symbolistmovemen00symouoft#page/n1/mode/2up/search/Pierrot Symons, Arthur (1919). ''The Symbolist Movement in literature''. Revised and enlarged edition. New York: E.P. Dutton & Company.]
* {{cite book|last=Taupin|first=René|year=1929|title=L'influence du symbolisme français sur la poésie américaine (de 1910 à 1920)|location=Paris|publisher=H. Champion}}
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* {{cite book|last=Wague|first=Georges|year=1913|title=La pantomime moderne, conférence prononcé le 19 janvier 1913, dans la salle de l'Université Populaire|location=Paris|publisher=Editions de l'Université Populaire}}
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{{refend}}

==Further reading==
* {{Cite book |editor=Baugé, Isabelle |title=Pantomimes [par Champfleury, Gautier, Nodier et MM. Anonyme] |publisher=Cicero |location=Paris |year=1995 |isbn=2908369176 }}
* {{cite journal |last=Carpenter |first=Alexander |year=2010 |title='Give a man a mask and he'll tell the truth': Arnold Schoenberg, David Bowie, and the mask of Pierrot |journal=Intersections: Canadian Journal of Music |volume=30 |issue=2 |pages=5–24|doi=10.7202/1006375ar |doi-access=free }}
* {{cite journal |last=Deshmukh |first=Madhuri |year=2004 |title=Langston Hughes as Black Pierrot: a transatlantic game of masks |journal=The Langston Hughes Review |volume=18 |issue=fall |pages=4–13}}
* [https://archive.org/stream/pantomimesdegasp00debu#page/n3/mode/2up Goby, Emile, ed. (1889). ''Pantomimes de Gaspard et Ch. Deburau''. Paris: Dentu.]
* [https://archive.org/stream/mimesetpierrotsn00hugouoft#page/n7/mode/2up Hugounet, Paul (1889). ''Mimes et Pierrots: notes et documents inédits pour servir à l'histoire de la pantomime''. Paris: Fischbacher.]
* {{Cite book |author=Jones, Louisa E. |title=Sad Clowns and Pale Pierrots: Literature and the Popular Comic Arts in 19th-Century France |publisher=French Forum Publishers |location=Lexington, KY |year=1984 |isbn=0917058488}}
* Larcher, Félix and Eugène, eds. (1887). ''Pantomimes de Paul Legrand''. Paris: Librairie Théàtrale.
* [https://escholarship.org/uc/item/4tv9r5ts Lee, Siu Hei (2018). ''The music and social politics of Pierrot, 1884-1915''. Unpub. Ph.D. diss., University of California, San Diego.]
* [https://scholar.smu.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1006&context=arts_arthistory_etds Norman, Ana (2021). ''Miming modernity: representations of Pierrot in fin-de-siècle France''. Unpub. Master's thesis, Southern Methodist University.]
* {{cite journal|last=Pedneault-Deslauriers|first=Julie|year=2011|title=Pierrot L.|journal=Journal of the American Musicological Society|volume=64|issue=3|pages=601–45|doi=10.1525/jams.2011.64.3.601}} (Analyzes Pierrots of Arnold Schoenberg and Paul Margueritte in light of late-19th-century notions of "hysteria".)
* Sentenac, Paul. (1923). ''Pierrot et les artistes: mémoires de l'Ami Pierrot''. Paris: Sansot, Chiberre.
* {{cite journal|last=Sund|first=Judy|year=2016|title=Why so sad? Watteau's Pierrots|journal=The Art Bulletin|volume=98|issue=3|pages=321–47|doi=10.1080/00043079.2016.1143752|s2cid=193504216}}

==External links==
{{Commons category}}
* {{cite EB1911 |wstitle=Pierrot |volume=21 |page=592}}
* [http://theses.enc.sorbonne.fr/2012/driant Driant, Pénélope (2012). ''Maurice Farina, mime, archiviste et collectionneur (1883-1943)''. Unpub. Master's thesis.] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120507130226/http://theses.enc.sorbonne.fr/2012/driant |date=2012-05-07 }}
* [https://www.academia.edu/2130577/Morphing_Moonlight_Gender_Masks_and_Carnival_Mayhem_the_Figure_of_Pierrot_in_Giraud_Ensor_Dowson_and_Beardsley Kreuiter, Allison Dorothy. (2007). ''Morphing moonlight: gender, masks and carnival mayhem. The figure of Pierrot in Giraud, Ensor, Dowson and Beardsley''. Unpub. doc. diss., University of the Free State.]
* [https://archive.org/stream/evolutionofpanto00levi#page/n3/mode/2up Levillain, Adele Dowling (1945). ''The evolution of pantomime in France''. Unpub. Master's thesis, Boston University.]
* [https://karltoepfer.com/pantomime/ Toepfer, Karl (2019). ''Pantomime: the history and metamorphosis of a theatrical ideology''.]

{{Clowns}}
{{Stock characters}}
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[[Category:Pierrot| ]]
[[Category:Zanni class characters]]
[[Category:Clever Zanni class characters]]
[[Category:Commedia dell'arte male characters]]
[[Category:Mime]]
[[Category:French clowns]]
[[Category:Fictional French people]]
[[Category:Fictional characters introduced in the 17th century]]
[[Category:Fictional Italian people]]