Beschreibung:

Details
JEAN-BAPTISTE GREUZE (TOURNUS 1725-1805 PARIS)
Étude de jeune fille, en pied, vue de dos, la tête tournée vers la droite
sanguine
47 x 29,8 cm (18 1/2 x 11 5/8 in.)
Provenance
Georges Bourgarel ; Paris, 13-15 novembre 1922, lot 92, ill.
Jean de Cayeux (1913-2009), Paris (L. 4461).
Galerie Cailleux, Paris (Exposition. Sanguines. Dessins français du dix-huitième siècle, Paris-Genève, 1978, n° 16).
Galerie Jan Krugier, Genève (selon une étiquette, verso).
Post lot text
JEAN-BAPTISTE GREUZE, STUDY OF A YOUNG GIRL, FULL LENGTH, LOOKING TO THE RIGHT, RED CHALK
Previously unrecorded, this study is preparatory for the figure of the young girl in the background on the far left of the painting which Greuze executed in 1780, the Hermit or the distribution of the rosaries (private collection, formerly in the Kushelev-Bezborodko collection, more recently sold Sotheby’s, New York, 31 January 2013, lot 93). The religious subject is atypical for Greuze and was likely chosen by the Marquis de Véri Raionar (died in 1785), who may have commissioned the painting; the engraving after it by Henri Marais from 1788 bears a dedication to abbot Joseph Alphonse de Véri (1724-1799), the brother of the Marquis.
If the subject stands out in Greuze’s repertoire, its treatment, with a large number of young women, is typical of the artist. Although hardly visible in the final composition, the young girl related to the present study, dressed modestly, is given as much attention as the protagonist figure, the hermit, for which a study in red chalk survives at the Louvre (inv. 26994).
We are grateful to Antoine Chatelain for his help in writing this note.