Jean-Baptiste Greuze
Filial Piety (The Paralytic), c. 1763
Oil on canvas
Hermitage, Saint Petersburg
Denis Diderot was an unofficial art adviser to Catherine the Great of Russia. It was no coincidence when the painting he praised was purchased directly from the artist by Catherine's agents and shipped to Saint Petersburg, where it remains. This peculiar mid-18th century French painting-genre of the "edifying family tableau" was exactly suited to Diderot's taste for secularized moral uplift. More on this painting
In more general terms, filial piety means to be good to one's parents; to take care of one's parents; to engage in good conduct, not just towards parents but also outside the home so as to bring a good name to one's parents and ancestors; to show love, respect, and support; to display courtesy; to ensure male heirs; to uphold fraternity among brothers; to wisely advise one's parents, including dissuading them from moral unrighteousness; to display sorrow for their sickness and death; and to bury them and carry out sacrifices after their death. More on Filial Piety Jean-Baptiste Greuze (21 August 1725 – 4 March 1805) was a French painter of portraits, genre scenes, and history painting.
Jean-Baptiste Greuze (1725–1805)
Psyché couronnant l'Amour/ Cupid Crowned by Psyche, c. between circa 1785 and circa 1790
Palais des Beaux-Arts de Lille
Cupid and Psyche is a story originally from Metamorphoses, written in the 2nd Century AD by Lucius Apuleius Madaurensis. It concerns the overcoming of obstacles to the love between Psyche and Cupid, and their ultimate union in a sacred marriage. Although the only extended narrative from antiquity is that of Apuleius, Eros and Psyche appear in Greek art as early as the 4th century BC. The story's Neoplatonic elements and allusions to mystery religions accommodate multiple interpretations, and it has been analyzed as an allegory and in light of folktale, Märchen or fairy tale, and myth. More Cupid and Psyche
Greuze imagines the scene of the coronation of Eros by Psyche. This is the opportunity for him to figure a gallant, even erotic scene. He unveils the body of Psyche and that of Modesty on the right.
In order to meet the taste of the spectators of the time, the decor consisted of antique furniture, then in fashion. More on this painting
Jean-Baptiste Greuze (French, Tournus 1725–1805 Paris)
Aegina Visited by Jupiter, ca. 1767–69
Oil on canvas
57 7/8 x 77 1/8 in. (147 x 195.9 cm)
Metropolitan Museum of Art
Greuze insisted on submitting a painting to the Académie Royale that would gain him entry as a history painter, resulting in numerous false starts including this ambitious but unfinished canvas. It evokes the goddess Danaë, but may represent Aegina, daughter of the river god Aeopus who was visited by Jupiter and carried off by him in the form of an eagle. In 1767, Greuze wrote to Diderot that he “should very much like to paint a woman totally nude without offending modesty,” perhaps in reference to this work. In 1769, however, Greuze finally submitted a different subject, his ill-fated Septimus Severus and Caracalla (See below).Greuze was born at Tournus, a market town in Burgundy. He is generally said to have formed his own talent at an early age, and was encouraged by a Lyonnese artist named Grandon. When Grandon at a later date left Lyon for Paris, Grandon carried young Greuze with him.
Greuze, Jean-Baptiste (Tournus, 1725 - Paris, 1805)
Le Père de famille expliquant la Bible a ses enfant/
A father who reads the Bible to his children, c. 1755
Oil on canvas
Height: 0.653 m; Width: 0.824 m
In the booklet of the Salon of 1755, the work with an edifying subject is presented under the following title: A father of a family who reads the Bible to his children . Two months earlier, the painting had been presented to the Royal Academy of Painting and Sculpture which had approved the then thirty-year-old painter, which gave him permission to exhibit his works: five other paintings are thus presented. at the Salon of 1755. The Reading of the Bible was immediately acquired by one of the most important collectors of the time Ange-Laurent La Live de Jully, who presented it to amateurs in his magnificent Parisian mansion. More on this painting Settled in Paris, Greuze worked from the living model in the school of the Royal Academy. He produced his first picture, Le Père de famille expliquant la Bible a ses enfant (See above). Greuze soon established his claims beyond contest, and won the notice and support of the well-known connoisseur La Live de Jully, the brother-in-law of Madame d'Epinay. In 1755 Greuze exhibited his Aveugle trompé (See below).
Baptiste Greuze
Aveugle trompé/ The blind man with deception, c. 1755
Pushkin Museum.
Towards the close of the same year, he left France for Italy. Gougenot had some acquaintance with the arts, and was highly valued by the Academicians, who, during his journey with Greuze, elected him an honorary member of their body on account of his studies in mythology and allegory.
Jean-Baptiste Greuze (1725–1805)
La Jeune Fille qui pleure son oiseau mort/ The Dead Bird, c. 1800
Oil on canvas
Height: 68 cm (26.7 in); Width: 55 cm (21.6 in)
Louvre Museum
Little girl in a white dress and shawl, bare left shoulder, long red hair in front of a table, resting her hand on a dead white bird.
In the last years of Greuze's career, his moralizing, dramatic genre scenes and severe manner had become unfashionable. With The Dead Bird he returned to a lighter, pleasing vein like that of The Broken Pitcher - a type that was more prized by his contemporaries.
Jean-Baptiste Greuze (1725–1805)
The Father's Curse: The Ungrateful Son, c. 1777
Oil on canvas
130 x 162 cm
Musée du Louvre, Paris
In the tradition of the Bible parable of the prodigal son, The Father's Curse first describes a father cursing his son, who neglects the family (of which he is the sole support) to join the army, and in the subsequent scene (See below), the son finding his father dead on his return. Adopting the canons of classical history painting, Greuze employs a frieze composition, a sombre, matte colouring, and eloquent gestures, shunning an over-accurate description of details. More on this painting
Jean-Baptiste Greuze (1725–1805)
The Son Punished, c. 1777
Oil on canvas
Height: 130 cm (51.1 in); Width: 163 cm (64.1 in)
Louvre Museum
Women, children, and man sitting and standing showing and crying around the father lying on his deathbed.
Jean-Baptiste Greuze (1725–1805)
L'Accordée de village/ The Village Accord
The Marriage Contract
Oil on canvas
Height: 0.92 m; 1.2 m; Width: 1.17 m
Louvre Museum
A young man addresses the aging father of his young fiancee, dressed in white and whose bodice is adorned with a small bouquet of flowers. With his left hand, the groom receives the dowry that his future father-in-law gives him. The arms of the two young people, discreetly crossed, evoke the bond that will unite them throughout their lives. Her arm has half passed under that of her future husband, and the tips of her fingers fall and press gently on his hand; it is the only mark of tenderness that she gives him, and perhaps without knowing it herself. Her mother, for her part, firmly embraces her right hand, while one of her sisters embraces her crying. More on this painting
Other children are in the left part of this composition: a curious young boy who stands on tiptoe, a little girl who feeds a hen and her chicks, a poetic element and evocation of the expected procreation of the two young people. . Next to the old father, one of the young bride's sisters looks at the main couple harshly, perhaps with jealousy. The last male figure, seated on the right in the composition, turns out to be the civil officer; he is preparing the marriage contract which will unite the two young people eternally.
Jean-Baptiste Greuze (1725–1805)
The Kings' Tart/ Le gâteau des rois, c. 1744
Oil on canvas
Height: 71 cm (27.9 in); Width: 92.5 cm (36.4 in)
Fabre museum
The Kings Cake refers to an old tradition attached to Epiphany, a Christian holiday marking the Adoration of Jesus by the Three Wise Men. Celebrated on January 6, Kings Day belongs to the cycle of the fifty or so religious festivals that punctuate the year during the modern period. It also marks the end of the sacred period including Advent, Christmas and various holidays, with a time of family piety "surrounded by an atmosphere of rejoicing and tenderness" .
The religious symbol appears little in the composition, but this event, which brings together many guests (ten in total), constitutes a moment of family communion. More on this painting Jean-Baptiste Greuze
First furrow, c. 1801
Canvas , oil
118h148 cm.
State Museum of Fine Arts named after A.S. Pushkin
The painting depicts a peasant family, in whose life the main thing is work and strong moral foundations. At the same time, in full accordance with the formula of Diderot, Dreams seeks to "touch, teach, correct and encourage virtue."
The scene is deploys to the viewer, each of its participants with gestures, facial expressions, posture persistently demonstrates their good spiritual properties, the "righteousness" of their actions. The appearance of the characters, who are types that are passed from picture to picture, is idealized. The view of the countryside against the backdrop of its majesty resembles a classicist landscape. More on this painting In 1759, 1761 and 1763 Greuze exhibited with ever-increasing success; in 1765 he reached the zenith of his powers and reputation. In that year he was represented with at least thirteen works, amongst which may be cited La Jeune Fille qui pleure son oiseau mort (See above), La Bonne Mère, Le Mauvais fils puni (See above) and La Malediction paternelle. The Academy took occasion to press Greuze for his diploma picture, the execution of which had been long delayed.
Follower Jean-Baptiste Greuze
Widow and her Priest, c. 1830
Oil on panel
36 x 46 cm
Hermitage Museum
In a letter Greuze himself revealed the subject of this painting: "it is a sequel to the various characters already treated by me. It depicts a priest who is going to help a widow and her children with his advice and give them lessons in virtue." A drawing by Greuze in the British Museum contains four figures - the cure, the widow's daughter, the widow herself and her small boy - and reveals Greuze's great powers of observation. Yet the subject is treated by the artist much like a work of literature, in which virtue is rewarded and vice punished. More on this painting
Jean-Baptiste Greuze (1725–1805)
The Hermit, or 'The Distributor Of Rosaries'
Oil on canvas
113 by 147.5 cm.
Private collection
Sold for 1,082,500 USD in January 2013
The Hermit is set in a rocky landscape, where the central figure, an elderly Capuchin friar, sits distributing rosaries to large group of girls and young women. Despite its being outdoors, the scene teems with figures crowded into a narrow space between a stream in the foreground and the higher ground behind. The small patch of sky at the right is dominated by a large, plain cross. The girls are bringing food to the hermit – a basket of eggs, a live chicken – and in return he is giving them rosaries and votary medals, which he takes from a box held by a handsome young friar. The girls are dressed in ordinary gowns, apart from the two closest to the hermit who are all in white; they are receiving rosaries from him in preparation for their confirmation. More on this painting
French School, 19th Century, After Jean-Baptiste Greuze
La prière du matin/ Morning prayer
Oil on canvas
64 x 54 cm
Fabre museum
Jean-Baptiste Greuze (French, 1725-1805)Roman Charity, c. 1767
Oil on canvas
Height: 654 mm (25.7 in); Width: 814 mm (32 in)
Getty Center
Roman Charity is the exemplary story of a woman, Pero, who secretly breastfeeds her father, Cimon, after he is incarcerated and sentenced to death by starvation. She is found out by a jailer, but her act of selflessness impresses officials and wins her father's release.
The story is recorded by the ancient Roman historian Valerius Maximus, and was presented as a great act of filial piety and Roman honour. A painting in the Temple of Pietas depicted the scene. Among Romans, the theme had mythological echoes in Juno's breastfeeding of the adult Hercules, an Etruscan myth. More on Roman Charity
Jean-Baptiste Greuze (French, 1725-1805)
Lot and his daughters, circa 1767 - 1769)
Oil on canvas
Height: 0.745 m; 0.929 m; Width: 0.8 m
Louvre Museum
Lot and his two daughters, Genesis 19:30-38, left Zoar and settled in the mountains, for he was afraid to stay in Zoar. He and his two daughters lived in a cave. One day the older daughter said to the younger, “Our father is old, and there is no man around here to give us children—as is the custom all over the earth. 32 Let’s get our father to drink wine and then sleep with him and preserve our family line through our father.”
That night they got their father to drink wine, and the older daughter went in and slept with him. He was not aware of it when she lay down or when she got up.
The next day the older daughter said to the younger, “Last night I slept with my father. Let’s get him to drink wine again tonight, and you go in and sleep with him so we can preserve our family line through our father.” So they got their father to drink wine that night also, and the younger daughter went in and slept with him. Again he was not aware of it when she lay down or when she got up.
So both of Lot’s daughters became pregnant by their father. The older daughter had a son, and she named him Moab; he is the father of the Moabites of today. The younger daughter also had a son, and she named him Ben-Ammi; he is the father of the Ammonites of today. More Lot and his two daughters
Jean-Baptiste Greuze (French, 1725-1805)
Saint Mary of Egypt, c. 1800
Oil on canvas
71 1/2 x 57 1/4 in. (181.6 x 145.4 cm)
Chrysler Museum of Art
According to medieval legend, the fourth-century Alexandrian harlot, Mary of Egypt, embraced the Christian faith on a visit to the Church of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem. She then retired into the wilderness to devote the remainder of her life to penance and prayer. A lion - her saintly attribute - allegedly appeared after her death to help a passing priest dig her grave. As scholars have suggested, the sorrowful Saint Mary in Greuze's picture - naked and repentant in her desert cave and attended by a lion of even more doleful aspect - almost certainly mirrors the anguish of the artist's own life.
Saint Mary of Egypt, one of the artist's rare religious pieces and, perhaps, the most ambitious of his final commissions. Greuze produced this large canvas in 1800 for Napoleon's brother, Lucien Bonaparte, who was France's Minister of the Interior. It was exhibited the next year at the Paris Salon. So precarious was Greuze's financial position at the time it was done that he wrote twice to Bonaparte pleading for advances on the painting. "I have lost everything," he lamented, "except talent and courage....all my life I have never had so painful a moment to live through." More on this painting Greuze wished to be received as a historical painter and produced a work which he intended to vindicate his right to despise his qualifications as a genre artist. This unfortunate canvas, Sévère et Caracalla (See below), was exhibited in 1769 side by side with Greuze's portrait of Jeaurat (See below), and his admirable Petite Fille au chien noir (See below).
Jean-Baptiste Greuze (1725–1805)
Septime Sévère et Caracalla, c. 1769
Medium painting
Height: 124 cm (48.8 in); Width: 160 cm (62.9 in)
Louvre Museum
Caracalla, formally known as Marcus Aurelius Antoninus, was Roman emperor from 198 to 217. He was a member of the Severan dynasty, the elder son of Septimius Severus and Julia Domna. Co-ruler with his father from 198, he continued to rule with his brother Geta, emperor from 209, after their father's death in 211. His brother was murdered by the Praetorian Guard later that year, supposedly under orders from Caracalla himself, who then reigned afterwards as sole ruler of the Roman Empire. He found administration to be mundane, leaving those responsibilities to his mother, Julia Domna. Caracalla's reign featured domestic instability and external invasions by the Germanic peoples. More on Caracalla
Greuze, Jean-Baptiste (Tournus, 1725 - Paris, 1805)
Étienne Jeaurat
Oil on canvas
Height: 0.81 m; Width: 0.65 m;
Louvre Museum
Étienne Jeaurat (9 February 1699, Vermenton – 14 December 1789, Versailles) was a French painter, above all remembered for his lively street scenes
Attributed to Greuze, Jean-Baptiste (Tournus, 1725 - Paris, 1805)
Portrait of little girl with little dog
Oil on Board
Cognacq-Jay Museum
Jean-Baptiste Greuze
Portrait of a young womanOil on canvas
Height: 0.73 m; Width: 0.58 m
Louvre Museum
Jean-Baptiste Greuze
Girl with a letter., c. 1770
Canvas , oil
71h58 cm.
State Museum of Fine Arts named after A.S. Pushkin
In the following year, on 4 March 1805, he died in the Louvre in great poverty. He had been in receipt of considerable wealth, which he had dissipated by extravagance and bad management (as well as embezzlement by his wife) so that during his closing years he was forced to solicit commissions which his enfeebled powers no longer enabled him to carry out with success. "At the funeral of the long-neglected old man, a young woman deeply veiled and overcome with emotion plainly visible through her veil, laid upon the coffin, just before its removal, a bouquet of immortelles and withdrew to her devotions.
Jean-Baptiste Greuze (1725–1805)
Innocence, c. early 1790s
Oil on mahogany panel
H 63 x W 53 cm
The Wallace Collection
In addition to its religious connotations, the lamb in Western art is seen as an attribute of Innocence, Gentleness, Patience and Humility. By including a lamb in the present picture, Greuze thus invests his beautiful young subject with the same connotations. Such depictions of young women cuddling pets, implying their ability to feel emotion, relate to the eighteenth-century cult of sensibilité fostered by Rousseau and others. Greuze’s heroine thus appears possessed of the heady combination of sexual innocence and emotional depth. The painting later attained notoriety because of the high price paid for it by the 4th Marquess of Hertford. More on this painting
Jean-Baptiste Greuze
Innocence driven by Love or The Triumph of the Hymen
Oil on canvas
Height: 1.46 m; Width: 1.96 m
Louvre Museum
The brilliant reputation which Greuze acquired seems to have been due, not to his accomplishments as a painter – for his practice is evidently that current in his own day – but to the character of the subjects which he treated. That return to nature which inspired Rousseau's attacks upon an artificial civilization demanded expression in art. More on Jean-Baptiste Greuze
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