Masterpieces in Colour

Greuze

“Greuze”--“a Greuze”--you have only to hear the word and there rises before your mental vision a radiant procession of maidens each lovelier than the last, with the blue of a spring sky in their shining eyes, rosy blood flushing delicate cheeks, soft silken hair escaping in go...

Chapters

8. CHAPTER VIII

When you think of the important place held by Greuze before the Revolution in the art of the eighteenth century, above all, when you reflect on how, being long dead, he still sp...

7. CHAPTER VII

Even during these brilliant days, when Greuze was considered the most fortunate of mortals, there lurked beneath the glittering surface of his life a grim reality which made hap...

6. CHAPTER VI

To certain temperaments the associations of the Louvre are as interesting as the treasures it actually contains, and many a dreamer wandering through those superb galleries must...

4. CHAPTER IV

From time to time during these years Greuze had painted children’s heads that gave evidence of the real character of his talent, and in 1765, the year of “La Malédiction paterne...

1. CHAPTER I

“Greuze”--“a Greuze”--you have only to hear the word and there rises before your mental vision a radiant procession of maidens each lovelier than the last, with the blue of a sp...

5. CHAPTER V

Mention has already been made of the overweening vanity which was Greuze’s most pronounced personal characteristic. He had, above all, the highest possible opinion of his own ta...

3. CHAPTER III

“A Father handing over the Marriage-portion of his Daughter” was the first title of this picture, and one which better, if less poetically, explains the scene. The homely ceremo...

2. CHAPTER II

It was that period of the eighteenth century before the Revolution when society was at its worst, the paints and powders that covered its face, the scents which over-perfumed it...