English
Broken Eggs
In moralizing genre subjects such as this, Greuze bypassed the arcane subject matter of history painting to appeal to a broad public. At the Salon of 1757, a critic even declared that the pose of this young servant girl, whose loss of virginity is symbolized by the broken eggs, was worthy of a history painter. Greuze struck upon such subjects, based in part on seventeenth-century Dutch painting, while still a student in Rome, though he would spend the next decades stubbornly pursuing the official title of history painter.
Artwork Details
- Title: Broken Eggs
- Artist: Jean-Baptiste Greuze (French, Tournus 1725–1805 Paris)
- Date: 1756
- Medium: Oil on canvas
- Dimensions: 28 3/4 x 37 in. (73 x 94 cm)
- Classification: Paintings
- Credit Line: Bequest of William K. Vanderbilt, 1920
- Object Number: 20.155.8
- Curatorial Department: European Paintings
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Jean-Baptiste Greuze
ca. 1760–80
Jean-Baptiste Greuze
n.d.
Jean-Baptiste Greuze
Jacques Firmin Beauvarlet
18th century
Jean-Baptiste Greuze
Jacques Firmin Beauvarlet
n.d.
Jean-Baptiste Greuze
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