Jean-Baptiste Greuze

Jean-Baptiste Greuze (August 21st 1725, Tournus - March 21st 1805, Paris) is a French painter and draftsman. Wire of a roofer like Watteau.

Biography

After having been the Master of the painter Charles Grandon with Lyon, Greuze settled with Paris in 1750, where he was the pupil of Natoire, with the Royal Académie. In 1755, its Father explaining the Bible with his children knew large success. Its popularity was confirmed with other melodramatic fabrics and Diderot the encensa for the morality of its subjects. Its Septime-Severe reproaching Caracalla for having made an attempt on its life (1769) allowed to him to be received with the Academy in 1769. Greuze painted many portraits and undergoes some criticisms for its fabrics libertines. It was also tested with the allegorical topics - the Offering with the Love (1769) - mythological - Dana - or monks - Sainte Marie the Egyptian woman - but without convincing. The Révolution of 1789 brought the vogue of the antique and made devalue its work, leading it to live lessons. The portrait of Napoleon Bonaparte that one ordered to him at the end of his life did not prevent it from dying in poverty.

Greuze was Franc-maçon and belonged to the cabin of the Last nine Sisters.

A recurrent theme at Greuze is the loss of the virginity which it will symbolize in particular by a broken jug ( the broken jug ), a broken mirror ( unforeseen misfortune ), broken eggs ( broken eggs ) or an dead bird ( the dead bird ).

Its representations of children and its portraits are conventional but interesting: Babuti, the Dolphin, Fabre d' Églantine, Young girl raising a trunk, Gensonné, the Wille Engraver, the Reading light, the Babuti Bookseller, Mrs Greuze, Marchioness of Chauvelin, Pigalle, Woodland, Head of boy, Wille .

Better draftsman than colourist, Greuze excelled in the representations of young girls, in whom could mix innocence and the erotism: the Young woman with the white hat (1780).

Its many fabrics are preserved at the Musée of Louvre (Paris), in the Collection Wallace (London), with the Museum Fabre (Montpellier), with the Musée Cop and the museum of Tournus, its birthplace.

In spite of skilful compositions, the recourse to outrageous gestures or pâmées figures, makes its fabrics moralizing often monotonous, when they do not fall into through sentimentalism:

Works

the Father explaining the Bible with his children , (1755)
Granted village , (1761) Louvre
the child with the dove
Filial devotion or the paralytic one helped by his/her children , (1763)
Paternal Curse , Louvre
the ungrateful Son & the Son Punished , (1778) diptych in Louvre
Psyché crowning the love , (1790)
Marriage with the mode
Madam de Porcin , museum of Angers
the Wille engraver, (friend of Greuze) , Museum Jacquemart-Andre, Paris
Portrait of young girl to the Blue Ribbon , Museum of the Art schools of Rennes
Granted village , (1761), Louvre
Sophie Arnould , Wallace Collection, (London)
Bookseller Babuti (his father-in-law)
the Prince Alexandre Stroganoff , Museum Besancon
the Severe Emperor reproaching Caracalla, his/her son, to have wanted it to assassinate, Louvre

Dairy the , Louvre

the Dead bird

Rêveuse

Unforeseen Misfortune

Gluck

Portrait of Louis XVII , Los Angeles County Museum off Art

See too

List of French painters

External bonds

Portrait of Greuze
Art Gallery - Jean-Baptiste Greuze
Jean-Baptiste Greuze in Artcyclopedia

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