This sensitively painted and dignified portrait of an elderly woman is thought to depict Greuze’s mother Claudine, with whom he was reunited in 1755 after a separation of two decades. The young Greuze, born in Tournus in Burgundy, had been apprenticed to a Lyon-based painter named Charles Grandon, and then accompanied him to Paris. Grandon recognised Greuze’s early talent, his skill in drawing honed and practiced with the drawing materials belongingto his architect father. Greuze did not return to Tournus until 1755 when en route from Paris to Italy, and it was then that he was reunited with his mother Claudine, who would have been in her mid-70s. There is a drawing in Chicago that has been identified as a portrait of Claudine, and, in it, she wears the same white pleated veil covered by a black shawl pulled up over her head. Details of the sitter’s features are also similar to those seen in our portrait: her thin lips, cleft chin, deeply set eyes and long, narrow nose are immediately recognisable. It may be that this portrait was also inspired by the reunion between mother and son, as the style accords with a dating of around 1755, according to Dr. Yuriko Jackall.

Also interestingly, this is a portrait that seemingly inspired a number of versions or copies, among them one that was included by Edgar Munhall in the 1977 Greuze exhibition (E. Munhall, Jean-Baptiste Greuze, 1725 – 1805, exh. cat., Wadsworth Atheneum, Hartford, CT, 1977, p. 26, no. 1, illus. p. 27; as Greuze, lot 61 in the Wille sale). This version differs slightly in details such as the pleats of the veil above the sitter’s forehead, in its shadows, which less subtle than those in our version, and in its measurements, which again differ slightly. The slightly ‘stiff air’ in that version noted by Munhall may substantiate the suggestion that it is a copy or version rather than the prime version. There are two further versions believed to be old copies: one in the Musée des Beaux-Arts et Musée Marey, Beaune (63 x 52 cm., inv. no. 873.3.1), catalogued as ‘Attributed to Greuze’; and one sold at Phillips in London, 7 December 1993, lot 221, as ‘After Greuze’. A later copy of the composition, previously with the Galerie de Lardemelle, Asnières-sur-Seine, is by the artist Isidore Pils (1815 – 1875).

While many of Greuze’s paintings follow the elegant and romantic Rococo style that was popular in Paris in the 18th Century, this portrait, with its uncompromising realism and unidealised depiction of an elderly sitter, can be related instead to the Northern tradition of ‘tronies’. Greuze depicts his mother seated half-length, turning as though to face the viewer, with a faint smile and a kind expression. She embraces a thick book – presumably a Bible – and her costume is modest and unembellished. Although we do not know a great deal about Claudine, Greuze is perhaps famous for his paintings of domestic morality, which suggests that his upbringing was a traditional one in keeping with the teachings of the church.

The first recorded owner of this portrait was the German-born engraver and publisher Johann Georg Wille, who moved to Paris in 1736 and became a member of the Académie in that city, known there as ‘Jean Georges’. Wille also worked as an art dealer in Paris. Although the exact circumstances of his introduction to Greuze are unclear, we know Greuze painted a portrait of Wille, the process of which is recorded in Wille’s diary.