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The group of commedia dell’arte figures includes the couples Mezzetin and Flaminia, and Silvia and Harlequin, with Pierrot standing behind. 'Italian Comedians by a Fountain' is an early work comparable to Lancret’s reception piece, 'A Gallant Conversation' (P422), both in subject and style, and may be dated to the same period c.1719. When it appeared in the sale of Louis-Philippe, King of the French, the 4th Marquess of Hertford wrote anxiously to his agent Mawson: ‘I depend upon yr. getting the Lancret (Watteau in the catag.) for me. I have no doubt it will sell for a good sum, most likely more than it is worth, but we must have it’.