Girl with Birds

c. 1780/1782

Shown from the waist up, a pale-skinned young girl sits next to a table with two small brown birds in this vertical, oval-shaped portrait. The girl’s body is angled to our right, and she looks down her cheeks at the birds. Her heavy lids are pale purple, and she has a delicate nose, full, red lips, and a round chin. Her brown hair is parted down the middle and pulled back under a white band. Her white gown is loose over her chest, exposing both round breasts and pale nipples. She holds the cloth to each side of her left breast, farther from us. A bird at the edge of the table leans forward toward the girl. The second bird pokes its head out of a box-like cage and looks up, beak open. The table has a mauve-purple top over a carved gold apron and leg. The girl’s chair has a nut-shaped finial on one rail, and the background is dark gray.

Media Options

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Artwork overview

  • Medium

    oil on canvas

  • Credit Line

    Timken Collection

  • Dimensions

    overall (oval): 61.4 x 52 cm (24 3/16 x 20 1/2 in.)
    framed: 92.7 x 70.5 x 6.4 cm (36 1/2 x 27 3/4 x 2 1/2 in.)

  • Accession

    1960.6.19

Artwork history & notes

Provenance

Russian Imperial Family, Pavlovsky Palace, near St. Petersburg, by 1837[1] until at least 1920.[2] William R. Timken [1866-1949], New York; by inheritance to his widow, Lillian Guyer Timken [1881-1959], New York; bequest 1960 to NGA.
[1] According to John Smith, A Catalogue raisonné of the works of the most eminent Dutch, Flemish, and French painters..., 9 vols., London, 1829-1842: 8(1837): 438, no. 147.
[2] According to Camille Mauclair, Jean-Baptiste Greuze, Paris, 1905: no. 795. See also Louis Réau, "Greuze et la Russie," L'art et les artistes, n.s. 7 (1920): 282 n. 2. Both Wildenstein & Co. and NGA curatorial files have an old photograph of the painting with the notation "Glouzonoff (former Mayor Petrograd)" on the back. However, this owner has not been identified, nor is it know when and from whom the Timkens acquired the painting.

Associated Names

Exhibition History

1967

  • Loan for display with permanent collection, Norfolk Museum of Arts and Sciences (now Chrysler Museum), Virginia, 1967-1972.

1982

  • Fragonard & His Friends: Changing Ideals in Eighteenth Century Art, Museum of Fine Arts, St. Petersburg, Florida; Arkansas Arts Center, Little Rock, 1982-1983, no. 40.

Bibliography

1829

  • Smith, John. A Catalogue Raisonné of the Works of the Most Eminent Dutch, Flemish and French Painters. 9 vols. London, 1829-1842: 8(1837):438, no. 147.

1905

  • Mauclair, Camille. Jean Baptiste Greuze. Paris, 1905: no. 795.

1920

  • Réau, Louis. "Greuze et la Russie." L'Art et les artistes n.s. 7 (1920): 282.

1965

  • Summary Catalogue of European Paintings and Sculpture. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1965: 63, as by Greuze.

1968

  • National Gallery of Art. European Paintings and Sculpture, Illustrations. Washington, 1968: 55, repro.

1972

  • Brookner, Anita. Greuze: The Rise and Fall of an Eighteenth-Century Phenomenon. London, 1972: 75.

1975

  • European Paintings: An Illustrated Summary Catalogue. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1975: 164, repro.

1985

  • European Paintings: An Illustrated Catalogue. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1985: 189, repro.

2009

  • Conisbee, Philip, et al. French Paintings of the Fifteenth through the Eighteenth Century. The Collections of the National Gallery of Art Systematic Catalogue. Washington, D.C., 2009: no. 55, 253-256. color repro.

Inscriptions

On stretcher: pencil notations by the stretcher maker to himself; adhesive label, "#6/ Greuze/ Girl with Bird"; label "3775"; fragment that appears to be the same as a label on the frame: "CHENUE EMBALLEUR / 5, Rue de la Terrasse PARIS/ 6."

Wikidata ID

Q20178928

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