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Masterpieces in Colour
Edited by--T. Leman Hare

GREUZE

1725-1805

      *      *      *      *      *      *

"MASTERPIECES IN COLOUR" SERIES

        ARTIST.                          AUTHOR.
    BELLINI.                         GEORGE HAY.
    BOTTICELLI.                      HENRY B. BINNS.
    BOUCHER.                         C. HALDANE MACFALL.
    BURNE-JONES.                     A. LYS BALDRY.
    CARLO DOLCI.                     GEORGE HAY.
    CHARDIN.                         PAUL G. KONODY.
    CONSTABLE.                       C. LEWIS HIND.
    COROT.                           SIDNEY ALLNUTT.
    DA VINCI.                        M. W. BROCKWELL.
    DELACROIX.                       PAUL G. KONODY.
    DUERER.                          H. E. A. FURST.
    FRA ANGELICO.                    JAMES MASON.
    FRA FILIPPO LIPPI.               PAUL G. KONODY.
    FRAGONARD.                       C. HALDANE MACFALL.
    FRANZ HALS.                      EDGCUMBE STALEY.
    GAINSBOROUGH.                    MAX ROTHSCHILD.
    GREUZE.                          ALYS EYRE MACKLIN.
    HOGARTH.                         C. LEWIS HIND.
    HOLBEIN.                         S. L. BENSUSAN.
    HOLMAN HUNT.                     MARY E. COLERIDGE.
    INGRES.                          A. J. FINBERG.
    LAWRENCE.                        S. L. BENSUSAN.
    LE BRUN, VIGEE.                  C. HALDANE MACFALL.
    LEIGHTON. A.                     LYS BALDRY.
    LUINI.                           JAMES MASON.
    MANTEGNA.                        MRS. ARTHUR BELL.
    MEMLINC.                         W. H. J. & J. C. WEALE.
    MILLAIS.                         A. LYS BALDRY.
    MILLET.                          PERCY M. TURNER.
    MURILLO.                         S. L. BENSUSAN.
    PERUGINO.                        SELWYN BRINTON.
    RAEBURN.                         JAMES L. CAW.
    RAPHAEL.                         PAUL G. KONODY.
    REMBRANDT.                       JOSEF ISRAELS.
    REYNOLDS.                        S. L. BENSUSAN.
    ROMNEY.                          C. LEWIS HIND.
    ROSSETTI.                        LUCIEN PISSARRO.
    RUBENS.                          S. L. BENSUSAN.
    SARGENT.                         T. MARTIN WOOD.
    TINTORETTO.                      S. L. BENSUSAN.
    TITIAN.                          S. L. BENSUSAN.
    TURNER.                          C. LEWIS HIND.
    VAN DYCK.                        PERCY M. TURNER.
    VAN EYCK.                        J. CYRIL M. WEALE.
    VELAZQUEZ.                       S. L. BENSUSAN.
    WATTEAU.                         C. LEWIS HIND.
    WATTS.                           W. LOFTUS HARE.
    WHISTLER.                        T. MARTIN WOOD.
             _Others in Preparation._

      *      *      *      *      *      *


[Illustration: PLATE I.--L'ACCORDEE DU VILLAGE. (Frontispiece)

This picture, at first entitled "A Father handing over the
Marriage-portion of his Daughter," then "The Village Bride," is
the best of Greuze's subject pictures. The scene is more or less
naturally arranged, and informed with the tender homely sentiment
inspired by the subject; and the bride, with her fresh young face
and modest attitude, is a delicious figure. It was exhibited in the
Salon of 1761, and now hangs in the Louvre.]


GREUZE

by

ALYS EYRE MACKLIN

Illustrated with Eight Reproductions in Colour







[Illustration: IN SEMPITERNUM.]

London: T. C. & E. C. Jack
New York: Frederick A. Stokes Co.




CONTENTS

          Chap.                                                 Page

       I. Early Days and First Success                            11

      II. The Times in which Greuze Lived                         20

     III. Greuze's Moral Pictures                                 27

      IV. The Pictures by which we know Greuze                    35

       V. The Vanity of Greuze                                    44

      VI. "The Broken Pitcher" and other well-known Pictures      52

     VII. Ruin and Death                                          62

    VIII. The Art of Greuze                                       71




    LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS


    Plate

       I. L'Accordee du Village          Frontispiece
             In the Louvre

                                                 Page

      II. L'Innocence tenant deux Pigeons          14
             In the Wallace Collection

     III. La Malediction paternelle                24
             In the Louvre

      IV. Portrait d'Homme                         34
             In the Louvre

       V. L'Oiseau Mort                            40
             In the Louvre

      VI. Les Deux Soeurs                        50
             In the Louvre

     VII. La Cruche Cassee                         60
             In the Louvre

    VIII. La Laitiere                              70
             In the Louvre




CHAPTER I

EARLY DAYS AND FIRST SUCCESS


Few names suggest so much beauty as that of 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 gold-touched curls at temples where the blue veins show,
lips like dewy carnations, rounded necks and curving bosoms that
suggest all the sweets of June. A veritable "garden of girls" in the
first fresh bloom of budding womanhood; and they come to you not so
much as painted pictures as delicate visions breathed on canvas from
which they might at any moment tremble into pulsing life.

Yet the Greuze to whom we owe this exquisite series was first known as
the painter of pictures of a very different kind. Before speaking of
these let us begin at the beginning, by seeing when and under what
conditions the child who was to become the poet-painter of a certain
type of womanhood first saw the world he was destined to enrich.

Born at Tournus, a little town near Macon in France, on August 21,
1725, the early life of Jean Baptiste Greuze curiously resembles in
its broad lines those of many other well-known artists. His parents
were humble people who lived in the tiny house at Tournus, now
decorated with a commemorative plaque; the father an overman slater;
and the godparents, who play such an important part in the life of the
French child, respectively a slater and a baker. The father seems to
have been ambitious, for he resolved to take his son into an evidently
expanding business, not as a workman, but as architect. At the usual
early age, however, the child's vocation declared itself. It was in
vain the father, alarmed by symptoms that threatened to disarrange his
plans, took materials from him and then whipped him for making
pictures all over the walls--anywhere, everywhere. The boy cared for
nothing but drawing of a kind that did not fall in with the cherished
architectural idea, and after many struggles he won the day by giving
his father for a birthday present a pen-and-ink drawing of the head of
St. James, well enough done to be at first mistaken for an engraving.
This had been copied at nights when he was supposed to be asleep, and
touched and convinced, the father finally gave in and sent him off to
Lyons to learn the business in the studio of the painter Grandon.

    [Illustration: PLATE II.--L'INNOCENCE TENANT DEUX PIGEONS

    "L'Innocence tenant deux Pigeons," or "Innocence holding two
    Pigeons," is a typical example of the eyes Greuze never tired of
    painting, large innocent orbs with a sparkle that suggests the
    morning sun on flowers wet with dew. The moist half-open lips
    you also find in most of his girl-heads. The lovely colour
    scheme is particularly happy even for Greuze. The original is in
    the Wallace Collection, London.]

The term "learn the business" is used advisedly. Grandon's studio was