Jean-Baptiste Greuze

French, 1725 - 1805

Explore Selected Works

See all 40 works of art
A pale-skinned man sits facing our left as he plays a harp while turning his face to smile at us in this vertical portrait painting. He looks out the corners of his light blue eyes under arched, gray brows. He has a rounded nose, pale pink lips, and a round face. Gray hair is brushed back from his high forehead and curls around his ears. His long fingers rest on the strings of the harp, and the ends of strings curl like wind-loosened strands of hair along the top edge. The man wears a pale mauve-purple cravat, and his snow-white, long-sleeved chemise is untucked and loose around his thighs. The cuff we see is open and folded back over a bright white shirt edged with lace. His dusky rose-pink breeches are unbuttoned at the knee over white stockings. The square-seated chair on which he sits is carved with garlands and floral patterns, which are gilded gold. The seat itself is topaz blue, and it has a low back. A similarly ornamented and gilded table along the back of the room holds a portfolio and roll of papers, the tooled and gilded spines of books, and a statuette to the right. The pale pinkish-orange statuette shows a woman holding a tablet and wearing a long, loose robe and head covering. Her body angles to our left and she looks off in that direction. The wall behind the table is mottled with smoky shades of gray and tan.
Jean-Baptiste Greuze, Ange Laurent de La Live de Jully, probably 1759, oil on canvas, Samuel H. Kress Collection, 1946.7.8

Ange Laurent de La Live de Jully

Jean-Baptiste Greuze · probably 1759 · oil on canvas ·  Accession ID  1946.7.8

Jean-Baptiste Greuze, A Young Girl Looking Upward, c. 1778, red chalk on laid paper, The Armand Hammer Collection, 1987.48.1

A Young Girl Looking Upward

Jean-Baptiste Greuze · c. 1778 · red chalk on laid paper ·  Accession ID  1987.48.1

Jean Massard, Jean-Baptiste Greuze, Mademoiselle Niquet, La mére bienaimée (The Well-Loved Mother), 1775, engraving with etching on laid paper, Katharine Shepard Fund, 2009.2.1

La mére bienaimée (The Well-Loved Mother)

Jean Massard, Jean-Baptiste Greuze, Mademoiselle Niquet · 1775 · engraving with etching on laid paper ·  Accession ID  2009.2.1

Jean-Baptiste Greuze, The Ungrateful Son, c. 1770, red chalk on brown laid paper with framing line in black ink, Gift in memory of Douglas Huntly Gordon and in Honor of the 50th Anniversary of the National Gallery of Art, 1991.91.1

The Ungrateful Son

Jean-Baptiste Greuze · c. 1770 · red chalk on brown laid paper with framing line in black ink ·  Accession ID  1991.91.1

Jean-Baptiste Greuze, Sacrifice to Love, c. 1766, gray and black wash over graphite on laid paper, with framing line in dark brown ink, Bequest of Lore Heinemann in memory of her husband, Dr. Rudolf J. Heinemann, 2000.97.1

Sacrifice to Love

Jean-Baptiste Greuze · c. 1766 · gray and black wash over graphite on laid paper, with framing line in dark brown ink ·  Accession ID  2000.97.1

Jean-Baptiste Greuze, The Well-Loved Mother, 1765, pastel with colored chalks and stumping on light golden-brown laid paper, New Century Fund, 2000.15.1

The Well-Loved Mother

Jean-Baptiste Greuze · 1765 · pastel with colored chalks and stumping on light golden-brown laid paper ·  Accession ID  2000.15.1

Jean-Baptiste Greuze, Bust of an Old Man, probably 1763, red, black, and white chalks with stumping and erasure on light brown laid paper, with later framing line in dark brown ink, Woodner Collection, Gift of Dian Woodner, 2011.42.3

Bust of an Old Man

Jean-Baptiste Greuze · probably 1763 · red, black, and white chalks with stumping and erasure on light brown laid paper, with later framing line in dark brown ink ·  Accession ID  2011.42.3

Jean-Baptiste Greuze, A Dog, c. 1760, red chalk on laid paper, Collection of Mr. and Mrs. Paul Mellon, 2014.18.14

A Dog

Jean-Baptiste Greuze · c. 1760 · red chalk on laid paper ·  Accession ID  2014.18.14

Jean-Baptiste Greuze, A Tired Woman with Two Children, 1750/1761, pen and brown ink with brown wash over black chalk on laid paper; laid down, The Armand Hammer Collection, 1991.217.15

A Tired Woman with Two Children

Jean-Baptiste Greuze · 1750/1761 · pen and brown ink with brown wash over black chalk on laid paper; laid down ·  Accession ID  1991.217.15

Jean-Baptiste Greuze, Head of a Woman Looking Back Over Her Shoulder, red chalk on laid paper, Ailsa Mellon Bruce Fund, 1981.50.1

Head of a Woman Looking Back Over Her Shoulder

Jean-Baptiste Greuze · · red chalk on laid paper ·  Accession ID  1981.50.1

Bibliography

1972

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

1976

  • Munhall, Edgar. Jean-Baptiste Greuze 1725-1805. Exh. cat. Wadsworth Athenaeum, Hartford; The California Palace of the Legion of Honor, San Francisco; Musée des Beaux-Arts, Dijon, 1976-1977. Hartford,1976.

2002

  • Munhall, Edgar. Greuze the Draftsman. Exh cat. Frick Collection, New York; J. Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles. London, 2002.

2005

  • Barker, Emma. Greuze and the Painting of Sentiment. Cambridge, 2005.

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: 246.