| The Dreamer | |
| Other Language 1: | fr |
| Other Title 1: | La Rêveuse |
| Artist: | Antoine Watteau |
| Year: | |
| Medium: | oil on panel |
| Height Metric: | 23.2 |
| Width Metric: | 17 |
| Museum: | Art Institute |
| City: | Chicago |
| Accession: | 1960.305 |
| Catalogue: | 45; G 88; 166; 100; 145; 165; 120; 79 |
The Dreamer (French: La Rêveuse) is an oil on panel painting of c. 1712–1717 in the Art Institute, Chicago, by the French Rococo artist Antoine Watteau. The painting is a single-figure, full-length composition that shows a seated young woman amid a landscape, dressed in somewhat an exotic attire consisting of long red gown with fur garment and white bonnet; it is a recurring subject that is also present in numerous paintings and drawings by Watteau such as The Coquettes, dit Actors of the Comédie-Française. There were attempts to identify the sitter of the painting, who was notably thought to be Watteau's contemporary, the Comédie-Française actress Charlotte Desmares.
In the early 18th century, The Dreamer belonged to the Abbé Pierre-Maurice Haranger, canon at the Saint-Germain l'Auxerrois who was one of Watteau's closest friends. During two centuries, the painting passed through various private collections, until coming into possession of the art dealer and connoisseur Georges Wildenstein, who sold it to the Art Institute of Chicago in 1960.
| 1874 | Ouvrages de peinture exposés au profit de la colonisation de l’Algérie par les Alsaciens-Lorrains au Palais de la Présidence ou Corps législatif… | Société de protection des alsaciens et lorrains demeurés français, Paris | 526 |
| 1883–1884 | L’Art du XVIIIe siècle | Galerie Georges Petit, Paris | 145 |
| 1943 | Fashion in Headdress 1450 - 1943 | Wildenstein & Company Building, New York City | 36 |
| 1956 | De Watteau a Prud’hon | Gazette des Beaux-Arts, Paris | 95 |
| 1959 | Age of Elegance: The Rococo and its Effect | Museum of Art, Baltimore | 35 |
| 1975 | The Age of Louis XV: French Painting 1710-1774 | Museum of Art, Toledo | 120 |
| 1976 | Selected Works of 18th Century French Art in the Collections of the Art Institute of Chicago | Art Institute, Chicago | 2 |
| 1984–1985 | Watteau 1684–1721 | National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.; Galeries nationales du Grand Palais, Paris; Charlottenburg Palace, Berlin | P. 26 |
| General references:, . |
de:Helmut Börsch-Supan
. Könemann. 2000. 3-8290-1630-1. Köln. p. 75; fig. 64. de. 925262301.pt:Ettore Camesasca
. Classics of the World's Great Art. New York. 9780810955257 . p. 115, cat. no. 165. registration. the Internet Archive. 143069.fr:Pierre Edmond Alexandre Hédouin
. L'Artiste. 78–80. Gallica. . p. 78, cat. no. 45.