Jean-Baptiste GREUZE (Paris, 1725 - Tournus, 1805) - Lot 63

Jean-Baptiste GREUZE (Paris, 1725 - Tournus, 1805) Portrait of a young girl with a blue ribbon Canvas 42 x 34.3 cm French 18th century frame in carved gilded wood. On frame number 6930 and customs stamp Provenance l - Lucerne sale, Fischer, November 20, 1997, no. 1032; - Christie's New York sale, May 25, 1999, no. 78 ($167,500). "His heads are charming, they speak, they think" (Diderot, Salon of 1765). Our painting depicts a young girl in three-quarter view, facing the viewer with a gaze that is both direct and melancholy. Her blond hair, lifted with simplicity, is held in place by a blue ribbon that emphasizes the freshness of her face. She is dressed in an ample black-and-white drape, revealing the pearly softness of her shoulder and neck. The neutral background focuses all attention on the intensity of her expression. This work is in the vein of the "têtes de caractère" and idealized portraits that made Greuze famous. Unlike the pathetic, exalted figure found in some of Greuze's compositions, this young girl is characterized by a more meditative restraint. The frontal gaze, slightly veiled in melancholy, lends the image a rare psychological power. The light palette, smooth modeling and subtle rendering of skin tone evoke Greuze's style of the 1770s-80s, when his studies of young women were hugely popular with connoisseurs. Our painting can be compared with several of Greuze's most famous works: - La Jeune fille au ruban bleu (Paris, Musée du Louvre, inv. RF 1983-18), very similar in hairstyle and intensity of gaze. - La Tête de jeune fille (Saint Petersburg, Hermitage Museum), which shares the same softness and chiaroscuro effect. - La Jeune fille vue de dos (Montpellier Musée Fabre). This type of composition testifies to Greuze's role as a painter of sensibility: this is not an individual portrait, but an ideal effigy, where youth, freshness and beauty embody both innocence and emotion. innocence and emotion. The sober but significant blue ribbon accentuates the graceful, intimate character of the figure. These images of young girls, both seductive and meditative, responded to the century's sentimental vogue, exalted by critics and fervently collected by amateurs. "Greuze was the first to give genre painting nobility and interest. His figures are touching without being trivial" (Frederic Memlchior Grimm, Correspondance litteraire, 1760-1770). Jean-Baptiste Greuze's reappearance on the market echoes the artist's major exhibition and consecration, which will take place in Paris at the Petit Palais from September 16, 2025 to January 25, 2026. Expert l Cabinet Turquin Lot sold by appointment and exclusively on view at Cabinet Turquin, 69 rue Saint-Anne 75002 Paris, 01.47.03.48 78, from September 8 to October 14.