(Tournus 1725–1805 Paris)
A young girl
oil on canvas, 27.5 x 23.5 cm, framed

Provenance:
according to the previous owner, the present painting once belonged to the collection of the van Beuningen family, Rotterdam

We are grateful to Edgar Munhall for confirming the attribution of the present painting (written communication).

Munhall has suggested that the present painting is a study painted from life of a young girl posing for the artist. According to Munhall, the study served as a model for a larger painting executed in more detail, that was once conserved in the Hermitage in St. Petersburg and was exhibited in San Francisco in the 1930s (see W. Heil, Exhibition of French Painting from the 15th Century to the Present Day, San Francisco, 1934, p. 37, no. 33, fig. 1).

Munhall observes that in the present case the artist’s characteristic brush has been handled extremely spontaneously and swiftly and that Greuze has only adumbrated less important passages while concentrating entirely on the expression. This intimate study painted in a studio atmosphere is a characteristic “tête d’expression”, a type of picture related to Dutch models, in which Greuze specialised. Paintings such as the present were in high demand on the contemporary art market. The genre was among the first to be rediscovered by collectors of the late 19th century, when the interest in 18th-century painting was revived.