Jean-Baptiste Greuze

This lively and free unfinished portrait presents a strong image to the naked eye. UV light reveals a careful, but slightly extensive series of retouches scattered throughout the composition. Many are located in the background as quick strokes applied for reinforcement. Others are slightly larger and can mainly be found in the darks of the drapery. The varnish is somewhat unevenly applied therefore it can be possible that some of these areas in the darks are original paint. To the naked eye this restoration seems to be very well applied. Unframed.
In response to your inquiry, we are pleased to provide you with a general report of the condition of the property described above. Since we are not professional conservators or restorers, we urge you to consult with a restorer or conservator of your choice who will be better able to provide a detailed, professional report. Prospective buyers should inspect each lot to satisfy themselves as to condition and must understand that any statement made by Sotheby's is merely a subjective qualified opinion.
NOTWITHSTANDING THIS REPORT OR ANY DISCUSSIONS CONCERNING CONDITION OF A LOT, ALL LOTS ARE OFFERED AND SOLD "AS IS" IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE CONDITIONS OF SALE PRINTED IN THE CATALOGUE.

This humble and sympathetic portrait is one of two known studies of this model for Jean-Baptiste Grueze's A Blind Man Duped, now in the Pushkin State Museum of Fine Arts, Moscow (see fig. 1).¹  The completed genre scene was the first of five paintings exhibited by the artist at his Salon debut in 1755 and depicts the old man in an interior, gazing, unseeing as he clasps the hand of his young wife, ignorant of her embracing her lover before him.² 

A further autograph version of the present study, in which the jacket and waistcoat are entirely unfinished, the collar roughly sketched and the gesso left exposed, was sold in these rooms 23 January  2003, lot 94.³  While both studies differ somewhat from the A Blind Man Duped, the sensitive handling of the expressions; the understanding of the furrows in the face, the eyebrows and the soft, curling hair, are almost identical in both sketches, entreating perhaps more empathy than the eventual comedic tone of the finished picture.  Painted sketches of this nature are exceedingly rare in the French master's oeuvre and both versions of the study are curiously large considering the modest scale of the finished composition.   The model and pose evidently appealed to the artist who returned to them some ten years later in the execution of a red chalk sketch, now in the Getty Museum, Los Angeles (see fig. 2), prepared as a model for his friend, the engraver Pierre-Charles Ingouf.⁴

We are grateful to Dr. Edgar Munhall for confirming the attribution to Greuze, based on first hand inspection.

1.  E. Munhall, Greuze the Draftsman, exhibition catalogue, New York, 2002, p.156, reproduced fig. 125
2.  Ibid.
3.  New York, Sotheby's, 23 January 2003, lot 94, sold for $96,000
4.  E. Munhall, op. cit., reproduced p.157