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"Should [Greuze] meet a head which strikes him, he would willingly throw himself at the feet of the bearer of that head to attract it to his studio. He is a ceaseless observer in the streets, in the churches, in the markets, in the theaters, in the promenades, in public assemblies. Meditating on a subject , he is obsessed by it . ... Even his personality is affected: he is brusque, gentle, insinuating, caustic ... according to the object he is rendering." - Diderot, c. 1765
Greuze arrived in Paris from the provinces in 1745, and by the 1760s he was the dominant personality in the SALONS. The genre that made him famous was modest household scenes of the provincial bourgeoisie-humble but honest, poor but pious-akin in subject matter to the bourgeois melodramas written by DIDEROT. The elderly father with shoulder- length gray hair, reading the Bible or admonishing one of his many children, is usually the focus of a picture. There is an underlying allusion to Protestantism, forbidden in France at that time. His work resembled the dramatic tableaux that HOGARTH portrayed, but Greuze treated his characters with sympathy rather than satire. The Village Bride (1761) exemplifies the type: The family is gathered in the kitchen for a wedding-and an exchange of documents and money. The inclusion of a hen and her brood alludes to the anticipated increase in the human family. When the picture was exhibited, it could barely be approached for the rapturous crowds that surrounded it. Yet Greuze's fortunes changed when he unveiled Septimus Severus Reproaching Caracalla in 1769. He had been accepted as a painter of everyday GENRE scenes, but he aspired to be a History Painter. In the hierarchy of the ACADEMY, only certified History Painters could be professors or hold any position of honor; to present oneself as a History Painter, as Greuze did, without having been admitted to academic membership in that category, and to do so in a surprise move, led to rejection and humiliation. Even his greatest supporter, Diderot, whose appreciation is quoted above, became dismissive: " ... the picture is worth nothing," he said. Greuze was reduced to poverty by the Revolution, changes in taste, and divorce.
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