Jean-Baptiste Greuze

Jean-Baptiste Greuze was the master of a new interpretation of genre subjects that was emerging in eighteenth-century France, and a superb portraitist. Today, he is perhaps best known however for his popular images of pretty girls inappropriately disguised as 'chastity' or 'innocence'. Despite not having had the lengthy academic training of so many of his peers, he was a superb draughtsman and, as well as a handful of full composition drawings, he produced some splendid figures and bold character studies in red chalk which are much sought after today. 

His modest birth and training with a minor Lyon painter ill-prepared him for the sudden fame he would achieve at the Salon of 1755. He spent the following two years in Italy, honing his skills and preparing himself for an illustrious career. The decade after his return was the most productive of his career. His large-scale genre paintings, which mimic the themes of Dutch painting of a century earlier, are nonetheless highly original in their approach, most notably for their moral conviction.  

Greuze's ambition to be accepted as a painter of elevated history subjects, possibly fueled by the adulation he had enjoyed with his early genre subjects, almost derailed his career. The judgment of his peers that he was better suited as a genre painted convinced Greuze to return to the subjects at which he excelled. As his style matured, his touch softened and introduced a gradual blurring of forms that becomes particularly apparent in his late portraits during the years of the Revolution. 

Despite changing taste, which made his earlier paintings increasingly unfashionable, he remained a leading figure in the art establishment, being invited to become a member of the revolutionary Salon juries, and was widely mourned upon his death.