Jean-Baptiste Greuze

Jean-Baptiste-Pierre LeBrun (1748-1813), Paris;
From whom purchased by Richard Codman, Boston, in 1795;
Thence by descent to James M. Codman Jr., Boston;
Thence by descent to Charles D. Childs, Boston, 1957;
Benjamin Sonnenberg, New York;
His estate sale, New York, Sotheby Parke Bernet, 5-9 June 1979, lot 69 (as Attributed to Jean Baptiste Greuze);
There purchased by Rafael Valls, London;
With P. & D. Colnaghi & Co., London;
From whom purchased by the present collector in the early 1980s. 

London, Royal Academy of Art, France in the Eighteenth Century, December 1967-March 1968, no. 313.  

J. Martin and C. Masson, Catalogue raisonée de l'oeuvre peint et dessiné de J.-B. Greuze, Paris 1906, cat. nos. 538 and 547;
C. Codman Walcott, A History of the Codman Collection of Pictures, Brookline MA 1935, p. 16;
M. Sharp Young, "Treasures in Gramercy Park," in Apollo, vol. LXXXV, March 1967, p. 174, reproduced;
E. Redmond, "The Codman Collection of Pictures," in Old-Time New England, vol. 71, no. 258, 1981, p. 106.

The following condition report has been provided by Simon Parkes of Simon Parkes Art Conservation, Inc. 502 East 74th St. New York, NY 212-734-3920, simonparkes@msn.com, an independent restorer who is not an employee of Sotheby's. This work has probably not been recently restored. The canvas has a very old lining, which could be reversed since the cracking is quite raised, particularly on the left side. There are a few retouches in the darkest colors of the hair in the center of the right side and a few small spots to some retouching above the head. But in the face, it is only a few cracks in the nose and above her right eye that have attracted retouches. There are some retouches in the white piece of fabric beneath her neck. Some of the thin cracks in the background and dark hair on the left side have also received retouches. The work does not appear to be abraded exactly; it is the cracking which has attracted the retouches. If the lining were reversed, the cracking would relax and retouches could be applied much more accurately, which would provide the picture with a fuller and more complete feeling.
"This lot is offered for sale subject to Sotheby's Conditions of Business, which are available on request and printed in Sotheby's sale catalogues. The independent reports contained in this document are provided for prospective bidders' information only and without warranty by Sotheby's or the Seller."

This seductive portrait bust of a young woman is among the finer examples of this recognizable sub-genre within Greuze's oeuvre; not only is it painted with a particular technical sensitivity, but it is also among the rare examples of Greuze's work with unbroken provenance since the artist's lifetime. The painting was likely acquired directly from the artist by Jean-Baptiste-Pierre Lebrun (1748-1813), a Parisian dealer and the husband of Élisabeth Louise Vigée Lebrun. Lebrun was a fixture in the Parisian art scene in the second half of the eighteenth century. He was born to a family of artists (he was the nephew of Charles Lebrun) and was a painter in his own right, as well as a professor in the Academy of Saint Luke. The picture was acquired in 1795 from Lebrun by Boston collector Richard Codman, among the first collectors of Old Master paintings in the United States. It was during Codman's inaugural trip to Paris in 1795 when he purchased this picture, along with approximately one hundred other works by artists such as David Teniers, Godfried Schalcken, and Jean-Baptiste Pater, all on the advice of  Lebrun, whom Codman referred to as "the most experienced judge of [old master paintings] then in Europe."¹ The painting remained in the Codman family collection until 1957, where after it was acquired by legendary New York collector Benjamin Sonnenberg. It, along with the entire contents of Sonnenberg's Gramercy Park townhouse were sold in 1979 by Sotheby Parke Bernet. 

This composition exists in at least one further known autograph version, sold Cologne, Van Ham Kunstauktionen, 19 November 2010, lot 589. After recent first hand examination, Edgar Munhall confirms the autograph status of the present canvas and considers it to be the prime version of the composition. 

The subject of a young woman depicted partially undressed, with her breasts exposed, is typical of Greuze's unique mixture of voluptuousness and dreamy reflection that he first developed circa 1765 in his studies for La Mère bien-aimee (The Beloved Mother), and subsequently repeated on numerous occasions through a wide range of variants in order to satisfy an ever growing demand for such erotic imagery. The present work is, according to Edgar Munhall, "one of the most subtle and technically refined examples of this peculiar genre". Mr. Munhall, to whom we are grateful, dates the picture to circa 1765-1770. 

1. T. Sixer (ed.), The Autobiography of Colonel John Trumbull, New Haven 1954, p. 186.