Jean-Baptiste Greuze
A Woman sitting in a Chair
Red chalk on laid paper.. 34 x 31.4 cm..
Framed..
Numbered lower left: 9 – 56..
All traces of this impressive work had been lost since the auction in Leipzig in 1931 in which a group of drawings by Jean-Baptiste Greuze from the Saint Petersburg Fine Arts Academy were sold. It was thus not included in Edgar Munhall's 2004 catalogue raisonné.
The work is drawn in red chalk, a technique which Greuze used frequently and with particular preference, and shows a woman seated, leaning slightly forward and facing left. Her hands are lost within the thick fabric of her long, warm winter gown. The only part of her body visible to us is a part of the face peaking out from beneath the broad bonnet. The artist has rendered the contours of the figure with confident and dynamic strokes, lending her a sense of sculptural and corporeal presence. It is this characteristic, as well as the moralising content of his works, which most differentiates Greuze from his French contemporaries.
In very good condition, minor stains in the upper margin, otherwise no damage.
Provenance
Saint Petersburg Academy of Fine Arts. - C. G. Boerner, Leipzig 1931. - Private collection, Rhineland.
Literature
F. Monod und L. Hautecoer: Les dessins de Greuze conservés á l´Academie des Beaux-Arts de Saint-Pétersbourg, Paris 1923, p. 30, no. 66. - Auktion catalogue of C. G. Boerner, Leipzig 29th April 1931, no. 102.