"Critical Miscellanies" {53} we are told that "In the Salon of 1791
an artist exhibited Robespierre's portrait, simply inscribing it _The
Incorruptible_. Throngs passed before it every day, and ratified the
honourable designation by eager murmurs of approval. The democratic
journals were loud in panegyric on the unsleeping sentinel of
liberty. They loved to speak of him as the modern Fabricius, and
delighted to recall the words of Pyrrhus, that it is easier to turn
the sun from its course than to turn Fabricius from the path of
honour." Mr. A. G. Temple, F.S.A., has written recently that efforts
have been made to identify the Salon portrait with this one, but
unsuccessfully. Robespierre's ancestors were Irish people, but he
was born at Arras. After a successful career as a lawyer he became a
member of the States-General, and Mirabeau prophesied, "That young
man believes what he says; he will go far." Carlyle has described
him as "That anxious, slight, ineffectual-looking man, under thirty,
in spectacles; his eyes (were the glasses off) troubled, careful;
with upturned face, snuffing dimly the uncertain future times;
complexion of a multiplex, atrabiliar colour, the final shade of
which may be pale sea-green." He was small and weakly, fond of
solitude, and sober in most things except in speech. Fluent and
rhetorical, he soon won fame with the populace; but an analysis of
his speeches reveals them "full of sound and fury, signifying
nothing." The latest criticism has dubbed him "a phrase-making {54}
charlatan." On July 28, 1794, still clad in the inevitable blue
coat, white waistcoat, short yellow breeches, white stockings, and
shoes with silver buckles, he himself perished on the guillotine that
had removed so many of his enemies.
_The Listening Girl_.--Another of Greuze's exceedingly pretty heads.
This picture, like the _Girl's Head draped with a Scarf_ in the
National Gallery, is an excellent representative of that numerous
class of the artist's work that consists of the heads of girls. The
face is exceedingly dainty, and the workmanship excellent. The
picture forms one of the Wallace Collection, and is, therefore,
easily accessible to the public. Although it is now called _The
Listening Girl_, it is not certain that this title expresses the
intention of the artist.
[Illustration: THE BROKEN PITCHER. (La Cruche Cassée)]
_The Broken Pitcher_ (_La Cruche Cassée_).--No picture by Greuze is
more widely known than this one. In one of Madame Roland's letters
we are able to gain an idea of what was thought of the work at the
time that it was painted. She has written: "It is a girl, naïve,
rosy, charming, who has broken her pitcher. She holds it on her arm,
near to the fountain where the accident has happened. Her eyes are
not too wide open; her mouth is still partly open. She wonders what
account to give of the misfortune, and does not know whether she is
to blame or not. It would {55} not be possible to find anything more
piquant or more pretty, and the only matter upon which one would be
right to reproach Monsieur Greuze is that he has not made the little
girl so sorry but what she would be ready to go to the fountain
again." The derangement of the draperies, the incongruity of the
lapful of flowers, the impossible way in which the pitcher is being
carried, are not less characteristic of Greuze than the sweet face
and the general charm and beauty of the painting. It is, indeed, one
of Greuze's most winsome works, and its fascination will continue to
captivate all but the most hypercritical. The original is in the
Louvre, but Greuze painted the subject again with modifications, and
there are a number of sketches and studies in existence. For
instance, in the National Gallery of Scotland there is the
preliminary sketch in oils for this work, and many prefer this sketch
to some of Greuze's more finished pictures.
_The Milkmaid_ (_La Laitière_).--Pretty as is this picture, it
embodies a city man's sentimentality concerning the work of a farm.
The hard labour of an actual milkmaid, and the peculiar conditions of
her employment, are especially fatal to dainty hands, for instance.
Thus, as the presentment of a milkmaid, the picture is far from any
truth to Nature; but as an engaging girl-picture it is one of
Greuze's most graceful and successful works. In 1821 it was sold for
7,210 francs, but in 1899, when {56} it was bequeathed to the Louvre
by Baroness de Rothschild, its value was estimated at 600,000 francs.
[Illustration: THE MILKMAID. (La Laitière.)]
_Innocence_.--Many of the excellent qualities of Greuze's work appear
in this attractive picture. It is true that the lamb is unfortunate,
and, as Greuze's lambs usually are, is more reminiscent of the
Lowther Arcade than of the meadow. Here also we see the head of a
girl on the body of a woman; but the general effect of the picture is
one of sweetness and tenderness, and the girl's expression is free
from the affectations which have marred so many of the artist's
paintings. This picture is one of the Wallace Collection.
_The Pretty Laundress_ (_La Belle Blanchisseuse_).--De Goncourt, in a
criticism of Greuze's pictures, has written that the work that goes
on in his paintings is but a simulation of work--that his washerwomen
do not wash. It may be that this is the picture which inspired the
criticism. A charming girl, elegantly dressed, sits in an impossible
position, as far as any effective washing is concerned, before a
ridiculously little bowl. The whole picture is most attractive, but
it is not washing day; and, perhaps, after all, washing day is not
precisely the best subject that an artist could have selected for
sublimation. The picture is now in the collection of Count Axel
Wachtmeister, at Wanas, in Germany.
{57}
THE CHIEF WORKS OF GREUZE
The largest collection of Greuze's pictures is not in his own
country, but is here in England, at Hertford House. The paintings
forming that collection were included in the Wallace bequest, and
thus they have become the property of the nation. Most other
European countries have secured examples of Greuze's work, and
several of his paintings may also be seen in America.
GREAT BRITAIN.
_WALLACE COLLECTION,_
In this collection alone there are twenty-one examples of the work of
Greuze. Some of these are of the best, and a few illustrate the
artist's imperfections. For instance, before _Fidelity_ and
_Ariadne_ one has the same unpleasant sensation as when a girl spoils
the effect of her beauty by stagey poses and by sentimental
attitudinizing. _A Bacchante_ is gross and voluptuous. The most
important pictures in the collection are:
A Girl with Doves. (See p. 40.)
The Listening Girl. (See p. 54.)
Portrait of Mdlle. Sophie Arnould.
The Votive Offering To Cupid.
The Broken Mirror.
Innocence. (See p. 56.)
Espièglerie,
Girl With A Gauze Scarf.
{58}
_NATIONAL GALLERY._
Girl's Head Draped with a Scarf (See p. 41.)
The Head of a Girl.
Girl with an Apple.
Girl with a Lamb.
_BUCKINGHAM PALACE._
A Mother and Three Children.
The mother indicates, by a look, that she does not wish the oldest
boy to disturb the youngest by playing his flute.
Girl in Cap seated on a Chair.
A Girl's Head.
There are also pictures by Greuze in many of the galleries of private
collectors. For instance, examples may be seen in the collections of
the Duke of Wellington, the Earl of Rosebery, the Earl of Dudley, the
Earl of Northbrook, Lord Yarborough, the Marquis of Lansdowne, Sir
Frederic Cook, Bart., Mr. Alfred de Rothschild, Mr. Reginald Vaile,
Mr. H. L. Bischoffsheim, Mr. Pierpont Morgan, Mr. Lesser Lesser, Mr.
George Donaldson, Mr. Martin Colnaghi, Mr. Charles Morrison, Mr.
Beit, and others.
_NATIONAL GALLERY OF SCOTLAND._
Girl with Dead Canary.
Girl with Broken Jar.
This is a sketch in oils of the idea which Greuze afterwards painted
as _The Broken Pitcher_, the famous picture that now hangs in the
Louvre.
Boy with Lesson-Book.
Interior of a Cottage.
Girl with Folded Hands.
Other examples of the works of Greuze in Scotland are those in the
collection of Lord Murray.
{59}
FRANCE.
_PARIS, LOUVRE._
During the period of unrest that accompanied and followed the
Revolution, many notable pictures were sold from France, and thus the
largest collection of pictures by Greuze is not to be found in
Greuze's own country. In the Louvre, however, all Greuze's
characteristics may be studied in one or other of the works that hang
there.
L'accordée de Village. (See p. 51.)
La Laitière. (See p. 55.)
La Cruche Cassée. (See p. 54.)
La Malédiction Paternelle.
Le Fils Puni.
Le Portrait de l'Artiste.
Le Portrait du Peintre Jeaurat.
Several Heads Of Girls.
_MUSEÉ FABRE À MONTPELLIER._
La Prière du Matin.
Le Gâteau des Rois.
Le Petit Mathématicien.
Jeune Fille, les Mains Jointes.
La Jeune Fille au Panier.
Tête de Jeune Fille.
Etude d'un Enfant de Quatre à Cinque Ans.
BESANÇON.
Here are two particularly good examples of Greuze at his best:
Paul Strogonoff, Enfant.
Tête De Jeune Fille.
{60}
MUSÉE CONDÉ.
Tendre Désir.
Versailles has examples, and the traveller to any of the following,
and to a few other towns, will find works by Greuze: Aix, Angers,
Cherbourg, Dijon, Compiègne, Douai, Lille, Lyons, Marseille, Nantes,
Nîmes, Rouen, Tournus, Troyes; and the members of the Rothschild
family have many examples at their various places of residence.
GERMANY.
In Germany Greuze is represented by _La Belle Blanchisseuse_, in the
collection of Count Axel Wachtmeister, at Wanas, and by pictures in
the Art Galleries of Berlin, Leipzig, Karlsruhe, Munich, and Metz.
RUSSIA.
_ST. PETERSBURG, L'HERMITAGE._
La Paralytique Servi par ses Enfants
UNITED STATES.
Pictures by Greuze may be seen at Boston and at Philadelphia.
{61}
RECENT CHIEF BOOKS ON GREUZE
L'Art du XVIIIme. Siècle. Edmond and Jules de Goncourt, Paris. 1854.
Histoire De l'Art Pendant la Revolution. Jules Renouvier, Paris.
1863.
Les Artistes Célèbres: Greuze. Charles Normand, Paris. 1885.
Histoire des Peintres de toutes les Écoles. Charles Blanc, Paris.
1862.
French Painters of the Eighteenth Century. Lady Dilke, London. 1899.
The History of Modern Painting, Vol. I. Richard Muther, London.
1895.
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