Description
This drawing belongs to a group of highly finished drawings created by Jean-Baptiste Greuze during the 1770s, many of which focused on family crises and were characterized by groups of figures set in shallow interior spaces. Although the precise subject of the work is unknown, it shows a father and his son kneeling before him. The title, which comes from an inscription on the drawing's original frame, refers to the girl entering the room at right, who is presumably disgraced due to a pregnancy out of wedlock. She is preceded by a woman who angrily confronts the family, gesturing to the girl's swollen stomach, perhaps accusing either the old or young man of impregnating the girl.
Provenance
Comte Magne [?-1902], Marseilles (?-1907); (Drouot, Paris, Comte Magne sale, January 25, 1902, no. 21) (1902); (Christie's, London, July 4, 1984, no. 121) (1984); (Kate de Rothschild - Didier Aaron et Cie., London, sold to the Cleveland Museum of Art) (probably 1984-1989); The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (1989-)
Accession Number
1989.46
Medium
brush and black and gray wash over black chalk
Dimensions
Sheet: 49.8 x 64.3 cm (19 5/8 x 25 5/16 in.); Secondary Support: 49.8 x 64.3 cm (19 5/8 x 25 5/16 in.); Tertiary Support: 61.3 x 78.8 cm (24 1/8 x 31 in.)
Classification
Drawing
Credit Line
Leonard C. Hanna Jr. Fund
Tags
Drawing Neoclassical & Romantic (1751–1850) French
Background & Context
Background Story
Jean-Baptiste Greuze (1725-1805) was a French painter known for the characterfully composed, morally instructive genre paintings that make him one of the most accomplished painters of the French tradition. The Guilty and Repentant Daughter from the early 1770s depicts a guilty and repentant daughter in the characterfully composed, precisely observed manner that distinguishes Greuze's best work from the more general genre painting of his contemporaries. Greuze was known for his characterfully composed, morally instructive genre paintings that combine the precise observation of everyday life with moral lessons, and his work was enormously popular in his time for its characterfully composed treatment of domestic subjects.
Cultural Impact
The Guilty and Repentant Daughter is important in the history of French genre painting because it demonstrates the characterfully composed, morally instructive manner that Greuze brought to domestic subjects as one of the most accomplished painters of the French tradition. Greuze's characterfully composed, morally instructive genre paintings—enormously popular in his time for their moral lessons—represent one of the most accomplished traditions in 18th-century French painting, and the early 1770s painting shows this tradition at its most characterfully composed.
Why It Matters
The Guilty and Repentant Daughter is Greuze's characterfully composed French genre painting: a guilty and repentant daughter rendered in the morally instructive manner of one of the most accomplished painters of the French tradition. The early 1770s painting shows the combination of precise observation with moral lesson that made Greuze enormously popular.
