Signed, dated, and inscribed (lower right): Greuze f. Roma / 1756

Paris. Salon. 1757, no. 112.

London. Victoria and Albert Museum, Bethnal Green Branch. "Collection of Paintings, . . . and other Works of Art lent for Exhibition by Sir Richard Wallace," 1872–75, no. 468.

New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "French Painting and Sculpture of the XVIII Century," November 6, 1935–January 5, 1936, no. 32.

Toledo Museum of Art. "The Spirit of Modern France: An Essay on Painting in Society, 1745–1946," November–December 1946, no. 8.

Art Gallery of Toronto. "The Spirit of Modern France: An Essay on Painting in Society, 1745–1946," January–February 1947, no. 8.

Museum of Fine Arts, Boston. "Masterpieces of Painting in The Metropolitan Museum of Art," September 16–November 1, 1970, unnumbered cat. (p. 70).

New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "Masterpieces of Fifty Centuries," November 15, 1970–February 15, 1971, no. 305.

Hartford. Wadsworth Atheneum. "Jean-Baptiste Greuze, 1725–1805," December 1, 1976–January 23, 1977, no. 9.

San Francisco. California Palace of the Legion of Honor. "Jean-Baptiste Greuze, 1725–1805," March 5–May 1, 1977, no. 9.

Dijon. Musée des Beaux-Arts. "Jean-Baptiste Greuze, 1725–1805," June 4–July 31, 1977, no. 9.

Ottawa. National Gallery of Canada. "The Age of Watteau, Chardin, and Fragonard: Masterpieces of French Genre Painting," June 6–September 7, 2003, no. 64.

Washington. National Gallery of Art. "The Age of Watteau, Chardin, and Fragonard: Masterpieces of French Genre Painting," October 12, 2003–January 11, 2004, no. 64.

Gemäldegalerie, Staatliche Museen zu Berlin. "The Age of Watteau, Chardin, and Fragonard: Masterpieces of French Genre Painting," February 8–May 9, 2004, no. 64.

L'abbé Barthélemy. Letter to the comte de Caylus. May 12, 1756 [published posthumously in "Voyage en Italie de M. l'abbé Barthélemy . . ., Paris: F. Buisson, An X (1802), p. 138; reprinted by Minkoff Reprints, Geneva, 1972], describes the painting as charming: "Tout cela me paroît joli; et la figure de la fille a une position si noble, qu'elle pourrait orner un tableau d'histoire.".

[E.-C. Fréron]. "Lettre XV, Exposition des ouvrages de peinture, de sculpture & de gravûre." Année littéraire 5 (1757), pp. 347–48, describes the figure of the young girl and praises the picture for its truth, color and piquant effect: " . . . Greuze. Avec quel plaisir on confidère une jeune fille aimable, affligé d'avoir renversé un panier d'oeufs! Sa tête est charmante; elle est peinte avec une belle douceur, & pleine d'expression. On trouve dans le reste du tableau, avec le plus grande vérité, une force singulière de couleur, et en effet très piquant. Les autres tableaux du même Peintre ont le même mérite; . . ." [author's name provided in Ref. Munhall 1976].

[Charles Joseph] Natoire. Letter to Mme de Pompadour. February 22, 1757 [published in Ref. Goncourt 1880, p. 332], notes that Greuze just completed the pendant to a picture he made for l'abbé Gougenot [the original picture is apparently "Broken Eggs" of 1756 and the pendant "The Italian Gesture" of 1757 (now Worcester Museum of Art, Worcester, Mass.)].

John Smith. A Catalogue Raisonné of the Works of the Most Eminent Dutch, Flemish, and French Painters. 8, London, 1837, p. 430, no. 113, describes the picture and states that "while playing with a bow and arrow, [the little boy] has hurt his hand with the barb; an allusion to the danger of playing with Cupid's darts"; notes that it was engraved by Moiette [sic for Moitte].

Anatole de Montaiglon in Jules Renouvier. Histoire de l'art pendant la révolution . . . suivi d'une étude du même sur J.-B. Greuze. Paris, 1863, pp. 504-5, mentions our painting as one of four "dans le costume italien" that Greuze sent to the Salon of 1757; refers to Barthélemy's description of it [see Ref. Barthélemy 1756].

Edmond de Goncourt and Jules de Goncourt. L'art du dix-huitième siècle. 1, 3rd ed. Paris, 1880, pp. 332, 339, 350, provides Salon title [but see Ref. Thompson 1982 for most accurate transcription]; states that it belonged to abbé Gougenot, and was bought for 126,000 francs [with its pendant] by Lord Hertford at the sale of the collections of San Donato in 1870.

Ch. Normand. "J. B. Greuze." Les artistes célèbres. Paris, 1892, pp. 20, 61, ill. p. 66 (detail of Veyrassat etching), sees this painting as an example of Greuze borrowing from Boucher "more or less transparent illusions which do not deserve the honor of repetition"; locates it in the collection of Lord Dudley.

Henry Marcel in Camille Mauclair. Jean-Baptiste Greuze. Paris, 1905, p. 40, publishes the Salon title for this picture.

J. Martin Charles Masson. Catalogue raisonné de l'oeuvre peint et dessiné de Jean-Baptiste Greuze [published as supplement to C. Mauclair, Jean-Baptiste Greuze, Paris, 1905]. Paris, 1905, p. 14, no. 181; ill. p. 3 (engraving), mentions various related works: a painted study, sold March 18, 1890; a drawing of 1756 for this picture, sold March 16, 1898 (now Albertina, Vienna); engravings by Moitte and Haïd, and an etching by Veyrassat for the San Donato sale.

John Rivers. Greuze and His Models. London, 1912, pp. 125, 270, ill. opp. p. 126 (Moitte engraving), describes the painting and translates Salon title; notes that the young girl "looks so sulky that the breaking of her eggs would appear to be the least of her grievances against him" [i.e., the young man].

Louis Hautecœur. Greuze. Paris, 1913, pp. 22, 58, 120.

"The William K. Vanderbilt Bequest." Metropolitan Museum of Art Bulletin 15 (December 1920), p. 269.

Louis Réau. "Greuze et la Russie." L'art et les artistes 1 (1920), p. 282, as in the Wallace Collection, London.

Wallace Collection Catalogues: Pictures and Drawings. 14th ed. London, 1920, p. 123, listed among unidentified works exhibited at Bethnal Green in 1872.

Gaston Maugras. Le duc et la duchesse de Choiseul, leur vie intime, leurs amis et leurs temps. Paris, 1924, p. 65, describes this picture in detail and states that when Greuze brought it to show the Duke and Duchess, the Duchess enthusiastically bought it [this information, which conflicts with established provenance, is not foot-noted; the sources were apparently family documents].

Wallace Collection Catalogues: Pictures and Drawings. 15th ed. London, 1928, p. 122, list it among twenty-two works lent by Sir Richard Wallace to the Bethnal Green Museum (catalogues, 1872 and 1874) and returned to Hertford House in 1875–76.

Harry B. Wehle in French Painting and Sculpture of the XVIII Century. Exh. cat., The Metropolitan Museum of Art. New York, 1935, p. 7, pl. 32, ill., suggests the symbolism of lost virtue is developed more playfully than in other works by Greuze dealing with the same subject [cf. "The Broken Pitcher," Paris, Louvre].

Millia Davenport. The Book of Costume. New York, 1948, vol. 2, pp. 691–92, no. 1869, ill.

Charles Sterling. "XV–XVIII Centuries." The Metropolitan Museum of Art: A Catalogue of French Paintings. 1, Cambridge, Mass., 1955, pp. 174–75, ill., states that it was painted in Rome between the end of January and May 12, 1756 for l'abbé Gougenot, and that Prince Demidoff—who lived in the same house with Greuze—probably bought it from Gougenot; calls it one of the best examples of the artist's early style, noting that its "very minute treatment" emulates 17th-century Dutch and Flemish painters of genre.

Anita Brookner. "Jean-Baptiste Greuze – I." Burlington Magazine 98 (May 1956), p. 158, fig. 34 (an engraving erroneously labeled as the painting), illustrates the Moitte engraving after Mieris (fig. 35) that is the basis for the figure of the seated girl; comments on the influence of Dutch and Flemish genre painting on this picture.

Edgar Munhall. "Greuze." PhD diss., Yale University, 1959, part 2, pp. 8–11, 13 nn. 52, 61; part 4, p. 12, suggests that M. de Stainville (later duc de Choiseul), who was French ambassador in Rome, may have purchased this picture and supports this assertion with a quote from Ref. Maugras 1924; states that it was the first picture Greuze painted after he settled in Rome on Jan. 28, 1756, and that it was finished by the time Barthélemy wrote about it on May 12, 1756; comments that Greuze was working at this time with the engraver Moitte; sees in the detailed setting the inspiration of Dutch engravings and in the soft and artificial details the influence of Boucher's pastels; observes that engravings of "The Broken Eggs" and "The Neapolitan Gesture," [Worcester Art Museum] were sold together as pendants.

Willibald Sauerländer. "Pathosfiguren im Oeuvre des Jean-Baptiste Greuze." Walter Friedlaender zum 90. Geburtstag. Berlin, 1965, pp. 148–49, pl. 30, fig. 5, discusses Netherlandish and classical sources for this painting, commenting that the figure and pose of the young man recall the Farnese Hercules.

Anita Brookner. Greuze: The Rise and Fall of an Eighteenth-century Phenomenon. Greenwich, Conn., 1972, pp. 58–59, 80, 97–98, fig. 16, states that the Duchesse de Grammont, sister of M. de Stainville, bought this picture from Greuze in Rome; notes that "sexual innuendo here reigns supreme, although the picture is in fact based on an engraving by Moitte (pl. 17) of the same subject by Mieris" [Frans van Mieris the Elder, "The Broken Egg," Hermitage Museum, St. Petersburg].

Pierre Rosenberg. The Age of Louis XV: French Painting, 1710–1774. Exh. cat., Toledo Museum of Art. [Toledo], 1975, p. 4, mentions the price our picture fetched at the San Donato sale of 1870 (Fr. 126,000) as an example of collector infatuation with eighteenth-century painting after 1869.

Mario Amaya. "The Moralist: J.-B. Greuze." Art in America (November–December 1976), pp. 85–86, cites this work as an example of Greuze's love for lengthy explanatory titles.

Edgar Munhall. Jean-Baptiste Greuze, 1725–1805. Exh. cat.Hartford, 1976, pp. 20, 40–41, no. 9, ill., states that broken eggs symbolize a loss of virginity and notes that the same models pose for the 1757 pendant, "The Neapolitan Gesture," in Worcester; revises some provenance for the MMA painting and reviews bibliography.

Rüdiger Klessmann. "Museen und Galerien: The Wadsworth Atheneum. Ausstellung: Jean-Baptiste Greuze." Pantheon 35, no. 2 (1977), p. 175.

Stuart Preston. "The Revaluation of Greuze." Apollo 105 (February 1977), p. 139, fig. 9.

Robert Rosenblum. "The Greuze Exhibition at Hartford and Elsewhere." Burlington Magazine 119 (February 1977), p. 146, sees in our picture and "The Neapolitan Gesture" a "polarized structure of emotional conflict,"—including "lucid dualities of active-passive, male-female, old-young, innocent-experienced"—that he compares with the "elementary emotional oppositions upon which David will later construct the binary clashes of strength and weakness in his own moral dramas".

Antoine Schnapper. "Greuze: Un précurseur?" Connaissance des arts no. 304 (June 1977), p. 87, quotes Barthélemy's letter to Caylus.

Antoine Schnapper. "Review of Edgar Munhall, "Jean Baptiste Greuze," 1977." Art Bulletin 60, no. 2 (June 1978), p. 374.

Michael Fried. Absorption and Theatricality: Painting and Beholder in the Age of Diderot. Berkeley, 1980, pp. 35, 191, n. 66, p. 200, n. 120, ill. p. 36, believes our picture and "La parasseuse italienne" [Hartford, Wadsworth Atheneum] represent the "absorptive concerns" of the early 18th century in their depictions of "not sleep itself but manifestly sleep-related states and activities" and a "peculiar, almost unfathomable mood of lassitude, reverie, and psychological absence".

Otto Naumann. Frans van Mieris (1635–1681) the Elder. Doornspijk, The Netherlands, 1981, vol. 2, p. 19, notes that an engraving in reverse by Moitte after Meiris's "The Broken Egg" in the Hermitage Museum was the inspiration for our picture; adds that an engraved inscription on the original print alludes to the symbolism of the broken egg, which stands for loss of virginity.

James Thompson. "A Study by Greuze for Broken Eggs." Metropolitan Museum Journal 17 (1982), pp. 47–48, ill., discusses a chalk drawing in the Albertina, Vienna, that is a study for the young boy in this painting; disagrees with earlier interpretations of the boy's role, arguing that, rather than uncomprehending or innocent, he is in fact a "solemn witness to the impossibility of repairing what is broken" (i.e., the lost virginity of the young woman); provides accurate transcription of original 1757 Salon title: "Une Mere [sic] grondant un jeune Homme pour avoir renversé un Panier d'Oeufs que sa servante apportoit du Marché. Un Enfant tente de raccommoder un Oeuf cassé" [A Mother scolding a young man for upsetting a basket of eggs which the servant has just brought from market, whilst a child is trying to mend one of the broken eggs].

Heather McPherson. "Jean-Baptiste Greuze's Italian Sojourn, 1755–57." Studies in Eighteenth Century Culture 14 (1985), pp. 94, 100–106, fig. 4, ill., argues that Greuze's Italian sojourn was highly significant in the development of his moralizing genre pictures; compares the young girl's pose to Caravaggio's "Magdalen" (Galleria Doria-Pamphilj, Rome) but notes that instead of selecting ordinary models for lofty religious subjects, Greuze attempted to ennoble ordinary subjects; suggests the flattened space, friezelike composition, and itensity of emotion and gesture anticipate the stylistic features of Greuze's "Septimius Severus and Caracalla" of 1769 [Paris, Louvre] as well as French neoclassicism as a whole.

Philip Conisbee. Chardin. Oxford, 1986, pp. 214–15, mentions it as an example of the kind of moralizing dramas that appealed to Salon audiences at the time; relates the work to both Boucher's "The Pretty Kitchen-maid" [Paris, Musée Cognacq-Jay] and Meiris's "Broken Eggs".

Edgar Munhall. "The Variety of Genres in the Work of Jean-Baptiste Greuze, 1725–1805." Porticus (1987–1988), p. 22, notes that our picture prompted one critic to suggest that Greuze try his hand at history painting, a more elevated genre according to eighteenth-century standards.

Andrzej Pienkos. "'L'Oiseleur' et les trois autres 'Tableaux dans le costume italien.' Quelques remarques sur l'oeuvre de jeunesse de Jean-Baptiste Greuze." Bulletin du Musée National de Varsovie 28, no. 1–2 (1987), pp. 1, 3–4, 6, 11–13, ill., discusses the diversity of iconographic sources for the four "tableaux dans le costume italien," including our picture, that Greuze made in Rome in 1756 and exhibited at the 1757 Salon; notes that the background of "Broken Eggs" resembles interiors seen in works by the Dutch genre painters, Nicolas Maes and Gerard Dou.

Carol S. Eliel in 1789: French Art During the Revolution. Exh. cat., Colnaghi. New York, 1989, p. 61 n. 28.

James Thompson. "Jean-Baptiste Greuze." Metropolitan Museum of Art Bulletin 47 (Winter 1989/90), pp. 14, 21, figs. 11–13 (color, overall and details), and color details on front and back cover, cites this as the first in a series of works by the artist in which a shattered object is used to symbolize lost chastity; stresses the importance of the small bow and arrow on which the child leans and describes him as a "solemn, plainclothes Cupid, silently commenting on the irreparable consequences of erotic abandon"; in addition to Dutch 17th-century precedents, observes that Greuze follows the French tradition of depicting scullery maids with eggs as symbols of feminine virtue, either intact or broken (c.f. fig. 14, Boucher's 1734 "The Pretty Kitchen-maid," Musée Cognacq-Jay, Paris).

Emma Barker. "Greuze and the Painting of Sentiment: The Family in French Art 1755–1785." PhD diss., Courtauld Institute of Art, 1994, vol. 1, pp. 283, 487, ill., contrasts it with Greuze's later works dealing with the theme of errant daughters, such as "La Veuve et son curé" [Hermitage, St. Petersburg].

JoLynn Edwards. Alexandre-Joseph Paillet: Expert et marchand de tableaux à la fin du XVIIIe siècle. Paris, 1996, pp. 56, 313, ill. p. 58.

Edgar Munhall in The Dictionary of Art. 13, New York, 1996, p. 639–40, ill.

Richard Rand et al. Intimate Encounters: Love and Domesticity in Eighteenth-Century France. Exh. cat., Hood Museum of Art. Hanover, N.H., 1997, pp. 57, 79, 150–51 n. 6, pp. 190–91 n. 1, ill., discusses the work in relation to its pendant, "The Neapolitan Gesture".

Colin B. Bailey. Jean-Baptiste Greuze: The Laundress. Los Angeles, 2000, p. 5, fig. 2 (color), notes that the Italianate genre pictures Greuze painted in Rome circulated in Paris prior to their official appearance at the 1757 Salon, and "impressed observers not only by their naturalism and local color, but, more importantly, by their considerable seriousness and ambition".

Mark Ledbury. Sedaine, Greuze and the Boundaries of Genre. Oxford, 2000, p. 125 n. 3, pp. 135–37, 176, pl. 14, cites this painting as an example of Greuze's awkward rendering of bodily proportion; discusses it and its pendant ("Le geste napolitain"), commenting on the artist's interest both in "the salacious and a seeming determination to avoid the historical and heroic in favour of the anecdotal and the theatrical"; notes that the two scenes "can easily be read [in sequence] as a narrative of seduction and its aftermath familiar from popular theatre".

Edgar Munhall. Greuze the Draftsman. Exh. cat.London, 2002, p. 50, ill. (detail).

Colin B. Bailey in The Age of Watteau, Chardin, and Fragonard: Masterpieces of French Genre Painting. Exh. cat.New Haven, 2003, pp. 248–50, 366, no. 64, ill. (color), suggests that besides Moittes engraving after Van Mieris, Greuze might also have been inspired by Caravaggio's "Penitent Magdalen," with her lowered head and clasped hands, in the Doria-Pamphili collection [in Rome].

Bernadette Fort. "The Greuze Girl: The Invention of a Pictorial Paradigm." French Genre Painting in the Eighteenth Century. Washington, 2007, pp. 131–33, 147 nn. 13, 20, 23, fig. 2, notes that that the servant in Broken Eggs "is, literally, a 'fallen' girl,' while the bejeweled upper-class young lady in "The Neapolitan Gesture" [Worcester Art Museum] stands upright and dismisses her suitor with a quick stroking of the fingers under her chin, understood in Naples as a gesture of disdain and dismissal"; notes that "the more the viewer scrutinizes these paintings, the more unstable their lesson appears" and asserts that the scenes "are intended for connoisseurs who enjoy decoding visual signifiers, as well as the tension they produce between a proffered moral message and its witty deconstruction"; suggests that the artist used the same model for the young woman in our painting that he did in his "Lazy Italian Maid" of 1655 (National Gallery, London).

Mark Ledbury. "Greuze in Limbo: Being 'Betwixt and Between'." French Genre Painting in the Eighteenth Century. Washington, 2007, pp. 187–ill. p. 178 and fig. 14 (color; overall and detail), discusses our picture in the context of Greuze's other images of the 'initiated' or seduced woman; remarks that playful references here to the subject of the penitent Magdalen "point to a scenario of remorse, not passage".