GREUZE, Jean-Baptiste
(b. 1725, Tournus, d. 1805, Paris)

The Widow and Her Priest

1784
Oil on canvas, 128 x 161 cm
The Hermitage, St. Petersburg

Greuze had a descriptive, Dutch-style art with moralizing tendency. Northern influence can be clearly detected: highly-accomplished draftsmanship, an accumulation of familiar, down-to-earth details, concern for accuracy, the complicated dress of women, a setting orchestrated around some minor domestic drama, and a well-balanced use of grays and whites.