Jean-Baptiste GREUZE (1725-1805) - Lot 413

Jean-Baptiste GREUZE (1725-1805) Italian peasant's head, study Oil on canvas H: 46 cm - W: 38 cm ET Signed lower left JB Greuze. Handwritten label on the back: "Dear friend / Receive the portrait of the Italian / who gave us such a fright / accept this token of friendship / Greuze / May 28, 1775 / rue des Orties no. 11." Edgar Munhall confirmed the attribution in a letter dated December 1, 1987. Provenance: - Christie's Monaco sale June 19, 1988 no. 58. Rue des Orties was on the site of Avenue de l'Opéra, some distance from the Palais Royal. suggested that the friend who lived there might have been the dealer and collector Lebrun, husband of Elisabeth Louis Vigée Lebrun, author in 1776 of a work on painting in which he praised Greuze.