74 The Father's Curse:
The Ungrateful Son
Brush and gray wash, squared in pencil; H: 50.2 cm (i9^3 /^
in.); W: 63.9 cm (25^3 /6 in.)
83.GG.23I
MARKS AND INSCRIPTIONS: (Recto) at bottom right,
signed J. B. Greuze in brown ink; (verso) inscribed No.
2726 in black chalk.
PROVENANCE: Comte Adolphe-Narcisse Thibaudeau,
Paris; Baron Solomon de Rothschild, Paris; Rene Fri-
bourg, Paris; Harry Spiro, New York; Mr. and Mrs. Les-
ter Avnet, New York; art market, Paris.
EXHIBITIONS: Exhibition de Part fran^ais au XVIIIeme
siede, Palais de Charlottenberg, Copenhagen, August-
October 1935, no. 391. Old Master Draw ings from the Col-
lection of Mr. and Mrs. Lester Avnet, American Federation
of Arts, New York, and Minneapolis Institute of Arts,
1969-1970, no. 25.
BIBLIOGRAPHY: J. Martin, Catalogue raisonne de I'oeuvre
peint et dessine deJean-Baptiste Greuze (Paris, 1908), p. 13,
no. 167; E. Munhall, Jean-Baptiste Greuze, exh. cat.,
Wadsworth Atheneum, Hartford, 1976, p. 172 , under
no. 84.
THIS LARGE AND HIGHLY FINISHED SHEET RELATES VERY
closely to Greuze's famous painting of the same title in
the Louvre, Paris, executed in 1777/78 (Munhall 1976,
no. 84). Earlier, Greuze had made drawn versions of this
and the companion subject (The Father's Curse: The Son
Punished] Munhall 1976, no. 88). The study for the 1765
rendering of this scene (Lille, Musee des Beaux-Arts;
Munhall 1976 , no. 48) shows the composition in reverse
and with many differences in detail. As Munhall has
noted, the principal alterations concern the anger ex-
pressed by the father and the astonishment of the son in
the later version; he has suggested that the Museum's
drawing may be either a preparatory study or a record by
Greuze of the Louvre painting (Munhall 1976, no. 84).
The fact that the drawing is squared would seem to argue
for the former solution, while the close correspondence
in detail between the two might suggest the latter. It may
be that the drawing was made after the painting for an
engraving.^1 In its relief-like presentation of figures, em-
phasized by the white highlighting across the foreground
group, the qualities of classical relief sculpture are
emulated.i. An engraving after Greuze's painting was executed by Rene
Gaillard and published in Mercure de France (August 1781), p.
143 (E. Pognonand Y. Bruand, Inventaire dufondsfran^ais: Gra-
veurs du XVHIe siede [Paris, 1962], vol. 9, p. 411, no. 186).168 FRENCH SCHOOL • GREUZE