Portrait of the Artist's Mother
Medium
Black, red, and white chalk with stumping on brownish-gray laid paper, laid down on a ivory laid card
Dimensions
37.7 × 29.3 cm (14 7/8 × 11 9/16 in.)
Classification
prints and drawing
Department
Prints and Drawings
Museum
Art Institute of Chicago
Accession Number
197866
Rights
Public Domain
About this artwork
This remarkable study of dignified old age is a poignant, rare portrait of Jean-Baptiste Greuze’s mother, Claudine, made when she was approximately 75 years old. Recently discovered, it documents a tender reunion of mother and son. Greuze visited his family in Tournus in 1755 on his way to Italy with Abbot Gougenot. A related drawing in a private Parisian collection has been identified as Madame Greuze Embracing Her Son after 20 Years Absence; the date of that work suggests that the present shee...
About the Artist
Jean Baptiste Greuze · 1725–1805
Greuze's paintings are typical for his time and place in that he used clear, bright colors, with subjects exhibiting rather light attitude of eighteenth-century painting. However, he was innovative in introducing a Dutch-influenced realism into French genre painting and portraiture. Through vivid facial expressions and dramatic gestures, Greuze's moralizing paintings exemplified the new idea that ...