Jean-Baptiste GREUZE (1725 - 1805) Dancing Love Grey... Lot 18

Jean-Baptiste GREUZE (1725 - 1805) Dancing Love Grey ink wash Dimensions : 23 x 21 cm Provenance : According to the label on the back: - Stamp of the Chennevières Collection in black ink at the bottom left - Sale Ader 25/05/1962 under n.37 - Collection Jacques Pardinel Mentioned in Louis-Antoine Prat and Laurence Lhinares, The Chennevières Collection: Four Centuries of French Drawings, ENSBA, Paris, 2007, p. 504, cat. 1116, under the title L'Amour volant, le bras gauche levé et tenant une couronne. The son of a contractor and architect from Tournus, Jean-Baptiste Greuze was trained in the workshop of the Lyon master Charles Grandon (1691-1762), whom he followed to Paris in 1750. In 1755 he became famous for his Père de famille expliquant la Bible à ses enfants (Paris, Musée du Louvre, inv. RF 2016 3). That same year, he was accepted at the Académie, where he took lessons from Charles-Joseph Natoire (1700-1777), and began to exhibit at the Salon. After a stay in Italy, from which he would only retain the work on the expression of figures, Greuze inaugurated the new genre of genre scenes and upset the critics. The expression of feelings reigns: an unprecedented interest in French painting, born of his many drawings from life. But Greuze was also a talented portraitist who multiplied his commissions and enjoyed representing children. Here Greuze confirms his talent as a draughtsman by depicting with a quick and supple stroke a Love seen from behind, in full forward movement, giving it a natural spontaneity. This sketch illustrates the taste for the representation of mythology, very much in vogue at the Academy, but above all for that of youth, which is very present in his work. Expert : Alexis Bordes