Bust of a girl

According to Edgar Munhall, the present lot was executed by Greuze around 1760 (written communication, 19 September 2001). The subject, thoughtful and demure, relates to the younger sister of the future bride in A Marriage Contract (the so-called L'Accordée de village) which the artist exhibited at the Salon of 1761 (Paris, Musée du Louvre). In that work, she faces right, her arm wrapped around her sister's shoulder, and she dabs tears away from her eyes. Apparently taken with this appealing subject (and conscious of its sales appeal), Greuze painted a number of variants on it, some looking forward, others with eyes raised, some smiling, others pensive, some with a chair in the background. Examples of these are to be found at the Musée Condé, Chantilly; the Musée des Beaux-Arts, Dijon (in pastel); and in The State Hermitage, Saint Petersburg. Numerous copies and imitations are known but, as Munhall observes, the present version demonstrates all the subtleties of Greuze's coloring and painterly manner. Jean Martin's and Charles Masson's catalogue raisonné of Greuze's oeuvre (Catalogue raisonné de l'oeuvre peint et dessiné de Jean-Baptiste Greuze, Paris, 1906) mentions the subject--though not specifically the present painting--under nos. 421 and 751, entitling the composition La Petite Soeur; the latter (no. 751) was engraved by Hauer under that title.

Our thanks to Edgar Munhall, who has examined the present painting in person, for his assistance in the preparation of this entry.