Jean-Baptiste Greuze

Various repaired horizontal tears (two all the way across the sheet - towards top and bottom - two partial). Paper browned at edges, and a little browned throughout.
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.
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Edgar Munhall has kindly confirmed the attribution and provided the information for this note.  He believes this fresh and impressive drawing to be one of Greuze's têtes d'expression, probably representing Surprise.  It was drawn from life from a young model, who would have had to hold his pose while Greuze recorded the expression he required.  He took a counterproof of this drawing¹, but that process has in no way affected the strength and delicacy of the original.  Munhall points to a slightly tremulous handling of the red chalk which is evident in other drawings by Greuze of this period, the early 1780s.²  According to Munhall, from the counterproof Greuze made some slight changes in the expression and posture of the boy to make a further red chalk drawing and a pastel.³  Finally, he used the same long haired boy of the present drawing as the model in two paintings: The Young Mathematician and a full face Bust of a Young Man.⁴

A final appearance of this boy is as Cupid in Greuze's grand composition Innocence Carried off by Cupid, in which Cupid looks back over his shoulder, his curls flowing.⁵  Making use of that figure as an attractive image, Greuze produced a red chalk head study in the manner of the present lot and a painting of the subject.⁶

An interesting technical observation which Munhall has made is that Greuze achieves the highlight in the pupil of the boy's right eye by carefully scraping away a spot of the red chalk, as he did in the Head of a Girl, in the Metropolitan Museum.⁷



1.  Sale, London, Sotheby's, 13 March 1975, lot 309

2.  For example, the Head of a Woman, formerly Paris, Galerie Cailleux

3.  Head of a Boy, red chalk, Hamburger Kunsthalle and Head of a Boy, pastel, Margot Gordon and Crispian Riley-Smith, Master Drawings, exhib. cat., New York, Shepherd and Derom Galleries, New York, 2010

4.  The Young Mathematician, oil on canvas, Montpellier, Musée Fabre, inv. no. 836.4.22; and Bust of a Young Man, oil on canvas, formerly Paris, Cécile de Rothschild

5.  Paris, Musée du Louvre, inv. no. RF 2154

6.  Bust of a Young Man, red chalk, Paris, Private Collection and Cupid, oil on canvas, St. Petersburg, Hermitage

7.  Jacob Bean and Lawrence Turčić, 15th - 18th Century French Drawings in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York 1986, p. 121, no. 128, inv. no. 49.131.2