A kneeling woman, her arms raised

This sheet is an unpublished study for one of Greuze’s best-known paintings, La Malédiction paternelle or Le Fils ingrat (‘The father’s curse’ or ‘The ungrateful son’), exhibited at the Salon of 1777 and preserved at the Musée du Louvre, inv. 5308 (fig. 1). It was conceived as a counterpart to Le Fils puni (‘The son punished’), painted one year later (inv. 5039; for the two paintings, see E. Munhall, Greuze the Draftsman, exhib. cat., New York, The Frick Collection, and Los Angeles, The J. Paul Getty Museum, 2002, p. 25, figs. 16, 17, pp. 148-153, under nos. 48-49, pp. 220-234, under nos. 78-84). In the first painting, the young woman is kneeling to hold back her seated father, who is about to force his son to leave the family home.

Several other figure studies by Greuze have been identified as preparatory to the painting. Two are in the Louvre (inv. 26995, 27018); one formerly in the collection of Jacques Doucet, sold in Paris on 5 June 1912, lot 25; another (a study for the father), also sold at the Hôtel Drouot, Paris, 27 June 2003, lot 1; and finally one for the son, formerly on the art market (Masters Drawings, exhib. cat., New York and London, Colnaghi, 1995, no. 37, ill.).

Fig. 1. Jean-Baptiste Greuze, The father’s curse, or The ungrateful son. Musée du Louvre, Paris.