Head Of A Young Woman c1780s
Head of a Young Woman c1780s by French Painter Jean-Baptiste Greuze (1725 – 1805); a portraitist, genre and historic painter.
This is a wonderful portrait of a young woman that is wearing a white blouse that has a black shawl draped over her shoulders; that is also wearing a white sheer kerchief over her black hair and tied at the front over her upper chest.
This is a remastered digital art old masters reproduction of a public domain image that is available as a canvas print online.
The Below Information Is Derived From NGA.gov
Jean was born in Tournus, France in 1725 as the sixth son of a master tiler who recognized his talent at a very early age; sending him to Lyon, France to study with the French Portrait Painter Charles Grandon (1691 – 1762).
At about the age of 30 he left Lyon, and traveled to Paris, France to study at the Académie royale de peinture et de sculpture or the Royal Academy of Painting and Sculpture; which at the time was the premier art institution of France during the latter part of the Ancien Régime (Old Regiem ~1500 to 1789), until it was abolished in 1793 during the French Revolution.
Though highly talented and very successful during the 1760s and 1770s, having patrons of the likes of the Marquise de Pompadour (1721 – 1764), Empress Catherine II of Russia (r. 1762 – 1796), and Ange Laurent de La Live de Jully (1725 – 1779); his rebellious nature and conflicts with Academy and Salon officials would prove to be his misfortune; especially after his marriage to Anne Marie Babuty in 1759; which would prove to be a disaster for him, as she was known to have had various affairs with his students and sitters, which caused him loss of income and public humiliation.
When the marriage ended 34 years later his wife received a substantial settlement, which left him in dire financial straights and by the time of his death in 1805 at the age of 80 he was nearly broke.