Jean-Baptiste GREUZE (1725-1805) Head of an Italian Peasant, study Oil on canvas H: 46 cm - W: 38 cm CT Signed lower left JB Greuze. Handwritten label on the back: "Dear friend / Receive the portrait of the Italian / who gave us such a fright / accept this token of friendship / Greuze / May 28, 1775 / rue des Orties no. 11." Edgar Munhall confirmed the attribution in a letter dated 1 December 1987. Provenance : - Christie's Monaco sale 19 June 1988 no. 58. The Rue des Orties was on the site of the Avenue de l'Opéra at some distance from the Palais Royal. It has been suggested that the friend who lived there might have been the dealer and collector Lebrun, husband of Elisabeth Louis Vigée Lebrun, author in 1776 of a work on painting in which he praised Greuze.