75 StudyoftheHeadofan
Old Woman
Red chalk; H: 44. i cm (iy^3 /8 in.); W: 32. i cm (i2II/i6 in.)
84.06.7 3
MARKS AND INSCRIPTIONS: (Verso) on mount, in-
scribed J. Bapt. Greuze in brown ink.
PROVENANCE: Von Amerling collection, Vienna (sale,
Dorotheum, Vienna, May 3-6, 1916, lot 96); private
collection, London; art market, London.
EXHIBITIONS: None.
BIBLIOGRAPHY: None.THIS IS A PREPARATORY STUDY FOR THE IN VALID's WIFE
who kneels at his bedside in Greuze's painting La Dame
de Charlie (Lyons, Musee des Beaux-Arts). He was al-
ready at work on the painting by 1772 and completed it
in 1775-^1 In the painting the wife is shown expressing her
gratitude for the providential visit. Another study for the
same figure is in the Musee des Beaux-Arts, Dijon.^2 It
shows her facing in the opposite direction and consid-
erably younger, and therefore represents an earlier stage
in the artist's thinking than the Museum's drawing,
which shows the figure much as she appears in the
painting.- E. Munhall, Jean-Baptiste Greuze, exh. cat., Wadsworth
Atheneum, Hartford, 1976, under no. 76. - Ibid., no. 76.
166 FRENCH SCHOOL • GREUZE