Jean-Baptiste Greuze

Collection of the sitter, Anna Maria van Westrenen (née van den Heuvel; 1769-1817);

Thence by descent to her daughter, Mrs. G.A. Sawyer (Justine Jean Sawyer, née van Westrenen; 1795-1883), Newton Ferrers, Devon;

By whose estate sold, London, Christie's, 29 June 1889, lot 75;

Where acquired by "Healey";

Anonymous sale, London, Christie's, 21 February 1930, lot 67 (as "J.B. Greuze");

Where acquired by "John";

With Wildenstein & Co., London, by 1938;

By whom anonymously sold, New York, Sotheby's, 28 January 2010, lot 208;

Where acquired by Linda Finger (1942-2011), Houston;

Thence by descent to the present collector.

London, Wildenstein & Co, Women of France in the XVIIIth Century, April - May 1938, no. 8.

Women of France in the XVIIIth Century, exhibition catalogue, London 1938, n.p., cat. no. 8.

This marvelous and elegant Portrait of Anna Maria van Westrenen (1769-1817) is a superb example of the Jean-Baptiste Greuze’s portraiture. Most famous amongst his contemporaries as a painter of moralizing genre scenes or for his bust length heads meant to convey a specific emotion, known as Têtes d’expression, this beautifully preserved panel is one of the rarer examples of a true portrait by the artist. Although painted in Paris, the sitter, who is shown in an elegantly languid pose and dressed in the height of French “Consulate” style, was in fact Dutch. Anna Maria (née Van den Heuvel) was the wife of Pieter Hieronymus van Westrenen van Themaat (1768-1845) who was appointed ambassador of the Batavian Republic, a French satellite state, to the court of Sweden in the autumn of 1802. Presumably the sitter and her husband were visiting Paris before leaving for their diplomatic post and commissioned this portrait from Greuze.

In the margins of an old label on the painting's verso, there is a handwritten inscription from the sitter's daughter, Justine Jean Sawyer (née Van Westrenen, 1795-1883), who identifies her mother as the model and Greuze as the artist, and dates the work to 1802.¹

¹The label itself appears to identify the art supplies vendor, "MALAINE", located on the rue du faubourg Saint-Martin in Paris, from whom Greuze acquired this panel.