Study of a Woman’s Head

Jean-Baptiste Greuze French

Not on view

Greuze’s contemporaries would have referred to this intense and affecting close-up of a model as an expressive head, or tête d’expression. Such works followed longstanding academic theories about how best to depict emotions that would convey the narratives of historical or biblical subjects. Although this highly finished tête d’expression has been associated with the imploring female protagonist in several of Greuze’s moralizing genre scenes, it appears to have been an independent painting. Greuze’s têtes d’expression in fact enjoyed a healthy place on the eighteenth-century art market. This painting was part of The Met’s founding purchase in 1871.

Study of a Woman’s Head, Jean-Baptiste Greuze (French, Tournus 1725–1805 Paris), Oil on wood

Due to rights restrictions, this image cannot be enlarged, viewed at full screen, or downloaded.

Open Access

As part of the Met's Open Access policy, you can freely copy, modify and distribute this image, even for commercial purposes.

API

Public domain data for this object can also be accessed using the Met's Open Access API.