Jean-Baptiste Greuze

S.M. Dodd, Saint Louis, before 1885;
Possibly M. Someville;
Lillie B. Randell, London;
By whom given to the Saint Louis Art Museum, 1926 (acc no. 74.26);
By whom sold, New York, Gimbel Brothers, 4 May 1945, lot 104 (as Attributed to Greuze, and sold as a pair with a Head of a Girl).

In its stoic and linear approach not often seen in works by Greuze, this Portrait of a Boy is a characteristic late work by the artist. It corresponds to a group of somber male portraits that Greuze executed during the French Revolution in the 1790's, commissions encouraged through the support of Jacques-Louis David. His Portrait of Jean-Nicolas Billaud-Varenne (Dallas Museum of Art, acc. no. 1961.105) is a similarly composed work from this moment that engages the viewer with a direct gaze and more tightly drawn technique. 

We are grateful to Edgar Munhall for supporting the attribution to Greuze, based on first hand inspection, and for his assistance in the cataloguing of this lot. Mr. Munhall's full written report is available upon request.