Jean-Baptiste GREUZE (Paris, 1725 - Tournus, 1805) Jeune Fille pensive (The Reading Girl) Canvas La liseuse', canvas, by J.-B. Greuze 18.50 x 15.35 in. 47 x 39 cm Provenance: James de Rothschild Collection (after Mauclair 1906) ; Gustave de Rothschild Collection (1829-1911); Sale of the estate of Madame B. (from the former Gustave and Robert de Rothschild collections); Paris, Piasa, Drouot Montaigne, 13 June 1997, no. 73 (as "attributed to Greuze" in the paper catalogue, but sold as by Greuze, dimensions given with frame 57 x 49cm; wrongly given as the Mauclair, no. 681); Private collection, Belgium Exhibitions : From Watteau to Prud'hon. Exposition organisée au profit de la Ligue nationale contre le taudis et de l'Entr'aide sociale batelière, Paris, Galerie Wildenstein, du 11 au 31 mai 1956, Gazette des Beaux-Arts, p. 18, n° 47 (Jeune fille accoudée, dimension donnée avec le cadre 60 x 50cm) Greuze l'enfance et la famille, Paris, galerie Eric Coatalem, from 6 November to 20 December 2024, catalogue by Antoine Chatelain, p.151, n° 53, reproduced p.131 Bibliography: Camille Mauclair, Jean-Baptiste Greuze (catalogue raisonné drawn up by Charles Masson and Jean Martin), Paris, 1906, edition by H. Piazza, p.52, no. 779 (with dimensional errors, 40 x 37 cm, as a counterpart to Meditation, Mauclair, p.45, no. 680, but the width of this "counterpart" is much smaller, 40 x 31 cm). Over the course of his career, Greuze produced a large number of half-body depictions of children and young people, which he used as pretexts for exploring his favourite theme: the soul and psychology of his models. Here, he subtly captures the transition to adolescence. Following in the Dutch tradition [1], he synthesised the portrait, the "expressive head" with genre painting, adding his characteristic sympathy to the observation of faces. In his first paintings, Greuze showed them from the front, but later added an element that gave them depth. Here, in the lower right-hand corner, he adds a corner of a desk in blackened pearwood, with an open drawer from which a sanguine pencil holder emerges and on which a book is placed in perspective. The tight framing creates a close, intimate dialogue with the viewer, and the artist's craft accurately renders the complexion and malleability of the flesh. We date our painting after 1780. The philosophers of the Age of Enlightenment attached great importance to education, particularly Jean-Jacques Rousseau, who published Émile, his treatise on the subject, in 1762. It was preceded by John Locke's Thoughts at the end of the 17th century, and followed by novels of apprenticeship such as Adèle et Théodore by Madame de Genlis (1781). The interest in children's portraits captivated painters, but also sculptors such as Falconet, Pajou and Houdon in their terracotta busts. In painting, Chardin and Lépicié often showed studious schoolchildren, while Greuze captured a moment of inattention after reading, catching the model daydreaming[2].In our young girl's abandon, the slightly half-open shirt adds a touch of sensuality to the figure[3].Diderot was one of the first to detect and describe this ambiguity in his work: "All this exudes innocence, and yet ... Don't you feel, at the same time, a secret warmth, a flame that is beginning to awaken? Greuze has the singular talent of painting modesty with a glimmer of sensuality, so soft, so veiled, that one no longer knows whether to admire or to desire"[4]. <a href="about:blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">1]</a> Rembrandt van Rijn, Titus at his desk, 1655, Rotterdam, Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen. <a href="about:blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">[2]</a> Greuze had even exhibited Un enfant qui s'est endormi sur son livre (Le Petit Paresseux, Montpellier, Musée Fabre) at the Salon of 1755. In 1800, Girodet's Portrait of Benoît-Agnès Trioson (Musée du Louvre) depicts the child totally distracted from his study. <a href="about:blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">[3]</a> An element found on several of his mid-body figures, such as Reverie (private collection), Voluptuousness (idem), Young Girl Listening (London, Wallace collection)... <a href="about:blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">[4]</a> Diderot, Salon of 1765, about the young girl in L'Accordée de village (Louvre). Jean-Baptiste GREUZE (Paris, 1725 - Tournus, 1805) 47 x 39 cm Over the course of his career, Greuze produced a large number of half-body depictions of children and young people, which he used as pretexts to explore his favourite theme: the soul and psychology of his models. Here, he subtly captures the transition to adolescence. Following in the Dutch tradition [1], he synthesised the portrait, the "expressive head" with genre painting, adding his characteristic sympathy to the observation of faces. In his first paintings, Greuze showed them from the front, but later added an element that gave them depth. Here, in the lower right-hand corner, he adds a corner of a desk in blackened pearwood, with an open drawer from which a sanguine pencil holder emerges and on which a book is placed in perspective. The tight framing creates a close, intimate dialogue with the viewer, and the artist's craft accurately renders the complexion and malleability of the flesh. We date our painting after 1780. The philosophers of the Age of Enlightenment attached great importance to education, particularly Jean-Jacques Rousseau, who published Émile, his treatise on the subject, in 1762. It was preceded by John Locke's Thoughts at the end of the 17th century, and followed by novels of apprenticeship such as Adèle et Théodore by Madame de Genlis (1781). The interest in children's portraits captivated painters, but also sculptors such as Falconet, Pajou and Houdon in their terracotta busts. In painting, Chardin and Lépicié often showed studious schoolchildren, while Greuze captured a moment of inattention after reading, catching the model daydreaming[2].In our young girl's abandon, the slightly half-open shirt adds a touch of sensuality to the figure[3].Diderot was one of the first to detect and describe this ambiguity in his work: "All this exudes innocence, and yet ... Don't you feel, at the same time, a secret warmth, a flame that is beginning to awaken? Greuze has the singular talent of painting modesty with a glimmer of sensuality, so soft, so veiled, that one no longer knows whether to admire or to desire"[4]. <a href="about:blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">1]</a> Rembrandt van Rijn, Titus at his desk, 1655, Rotterdam, Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen. <a href="about:blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">[2]</a> Greuze had even exhibited Un enfant qui s'est endormi sur son livre (Le Petit Paresseux, Montpellier, Musée Fabre) at the Salon of 1755. In 1800, Girodet's Portrait of Benoît-Agnès Trioson (Musée du Louvre) depicts the child totally distracted from his study. <a href="about:blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">[3]</a> An element found on several of his mid-body figures, such as Reverie (private collection), Voluptuousness (idem), Young Girl Listening (London, Wallace collection)... <a href="about:blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">[4]</a> Diderot, Salon of 1765, about the young girl in L'Accordée de village (Louvre).