Jean-Baptiste Greuze exhibition at the Petit Palais

 

Enfant qui joue avec un chien (Child playing with a dog)
(portrait of Louise-Gabrielle Greuze) 1767

                                                                    Private Collection

The painting above shows the younger of the painter's two daughters; it was one of his most famous paintings in its day. The girl, in her night attire, and the dog are portrayed with feeling. Jean-Baptiste Greuze (1725-1805) is often thought of as just a painter of sentimental pictures of children. This exhibition demonstrates, however, that he had several strings to his bow. Not the least of them was being an excellent portrait painter:

Portrait du libraire (portrait of bookseller) François Babuty 1761
Private Collection

François Babuty was Greuze's father-in-law.  He was a prosperous bookseller in the rue St Jacques in Paris.  Anne-Gabrielle Babuty, whom Greuze married, was a beautiful woman:

Portrait of Anne-Gabrielle Babuty, Madame Greuze ca 1760
Rhode Island School of Design

The exhibition recreates an elegant eighteenth century setting, using items of furniture from the Petit Palais and the Musée des Arts decoratifs in Paris and replica 18th century painted wallpaper, courtesy of the Dorset company Farrow and Ball:

The eighteenth century in France saw aristocratic taste give way to that of the bourgeoisie. Scènes de genre became popular, especially Greuze's moralising scenes showing family life. In this he was thoroughly approved of by art critic and writer Denis Diderot, who wrote plays on similar themes- for example, Greuze's theatrical scene of a father cursing his son for going off to be a soldier, abandoning his family commitments:

La Malédiction paternelle, Le Fils ingrat (The father's curse, the ungrateful son) 1777 Louvre

While the recruiting soldier appears to snigger by the doorway, the father's anger and the family's distress are shown by their exaggerated (to us now) gestures. In 1761 the first documented 'living tableau' was performed, where in the second act of "Harlequin's wedding" the actors formed the  Greuze picture shown below before they started to move and act out the drama:

L'Accordée de village (The Village bride) ink drawing 1761  Petit Palais

The notary at the table is settling the marriage contract. Such scenes of family life were popular with Diderot and his Encylopedist friends. However when Greuze finally, after 13 years, presented his acceptance work to the Royal Academy of painters, he came up against a hail of criticism. Even his old supporter Diderot called it a worthless painting. His subject: the failed attempt at patricide by Caracalla. It was supposed to be a history painting, but only gained approval as a 'genre' painting. This was such a come-down for Greuze that he never went to the Académie royale again and refused to exhibit at the Salon until the Revolution. The painting does not seem too controversial to modern eyes:

Septimus Severus and Caracalla  1769 Louvre

Caracalla, the son, who has just failed to assassinate his father, Septimus Severus, is looking brooding and embarrassed, while his father accuses him and points to the sword on the table, saying "If you want to kill me, go on and do it now." It was probably not heroic enough for the Academy. Their verdict was "very mediocre". However Greuze's skill as a painter is manifest. In the tradition of producing 'expressive faces' started by Charles Lebrun at the time of Louis XIV, Greuze produced many. His study for the father entitled "The Father's curse" (see above) expresses anger and disappointment:

Tête d'homme, étude pour Le Fils ingrat
(Man's head, study for the Ungrateful son)

ca 1777  Sanguine (red chalk)  Private Collection

Eighteenth century France adopted a new attitude to children. Whereas the heroic seventeenth century portrayed them as miniature adults, they were now shown as sentient beings in their own right. Greuze shows a depth of psychology in portraying their freshness and spontaneity:

Tête d'une jeune fille regardant vers le haut
(Head of a young girl looking upwards) ca 1766
Sanguine (red chalk) and brown ink  New York, Metropolitan Museum of Art

Like the above study, the portrait of Denis Diderot below has been loaned from New York:

Portrait of Denis Diderot 1766  Black and white crayon  New York, The Morgan Library and Museum

Greuze held similar ideas to the men of the enlightenment such as Rousseau in respect of education and was even aware of the harm men caused to young women. His attitude varies between a sensual portrayal of girls and a deep sympathy for their unjust fate. Greuze clothed such subjects as rape in metaphor. Perhaps the fact that he had two daughters made him very aware of their unequal position in society. One of his famous works is "The broken pitcher":

  

La Cruche cassée (The Broken pitcher) 1771-2  Louvre

Legend has it that Greuze had the idea one night when he was walking in a street of that name in his native town of Tournus, where he saw two lovers embracing. The broken pitcher, like the cracked eggs in others of his works symbolises the loss of virginity. The girl forlornly clutches at her dishevelled dress. The last section of the exhibition portrays this loss of innocence in, for example, a girl's lamenting her dead bird:

 

Jeune fille pleurant son oiseau mort (Young girl weeping for her dead bird) 1765
Edinburgh, National Gallery of Scotland

Birds in the eighteenth century represented love. The artist's yellow glaze has disappeared over time, leaving the canary white and the leaves blue. Two charming pictures of childhood are normally to be found in the Musée Cognacq-Jay in Paris:

Petit garçon blond à la chemise ouverte (Little blond boy with open shirt)
ca 1760 Musée Cognacq-Jay

Petit garçon au gilet rouge (Little boy with red gilet) ca 1775 
Musée Cognacq-Jay

The following depiction of a young shepherd boy was commissioned from the artist for Mme de Pompadour herself, bourgeois mistress of Louis XV, elevated to the aristocracy, proving the saying: "It's not what you know, but who you know". It was her brother who did the ordering, the Marquis de Marigny (also elevated):

Un berger qui tente le sort pour savoir s'il est aimé de sa bergère
(A shepherd who is testing to see if his shepherdess loves him)
1760-1 Petit Palais

The king's favourite had the pair of portraits hanging in her apartment. They have been reunited for this exhibition, its sister painting having been loaned from Fort Worth:

La Simplicité (Simplicity) 1759 Fort Worth, Kimbell Art Museum

It seems a pity to separate the couple again!

Jean-Baptiste Greuze portrayed himself with confidence in 1760, using bold loose brushstrokes:

Self portrait ca 1760 Louvre

 At this point in his career, aged around 35, Greuze was hugely successful, with many clients commissioning his domestic scenes. He had been accepted into the Royal Academy of Painting at only 30 years old. Then he had made an instructive visit to Italy in 1757 with his mentor and friend Abbot Gougenot.  

Greuze's success declined in his latter years as the neo-classical fashion displaced his moralising scènes de genre. He concentrated his skill on portraits. However he was overtaken by events and at nearly 80 years of age, he died destitute in his studio in the Louvre. It was only in the nineteenth century that an art critic- Arsėne Houssaye- rediscovered his work. Then in 2025 the Louvre devoted a small exhibition to him to mark the 300th anniversary of his birth- the 21st August, 1725.

 Now the Petit Palais celebrates this rather over-looked artist. The accent is on his sensitive portrayal of childhood.

Jean-Baptiste Greuze. L'Enfance en Lumière 

Exhibition at the Petit Palais, Avenue Winston Churchill, Paris 8e.

 From 16th September 2025 until 25th January 2026

Open daily except Monday.

metro Champs-Elysées-Clemenceau

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