Art Appreciation

Art Appreciation

Introduction

Jean-Baptiste Greuze painted many portraits and suffered some criticism for his libertine paintings. Women art work is the central object of Greuze paintings. These masterpieces had been developed by various artists throughout the modern history of the world. Jean-Baptiste Greuze's many paintings are preserved at the Louvre, the Wallace Collection, Musée Fabre, the Conde Museum and the Museum of Tournus. However, certain statuettes of naked women have also been found from pre-historic times and from the Paleolithic ages. These masterpieces, which mostly exist in the form of paintings, reflect the artists' esteem and respect for women. However, it has been additionally found that most of these paintings are lewd and try to depict only buck naked women (Vanpée, 1988).

Jean-Baptiste Greuze's remarkable paintings includes virtuous villagers, the exemplary father, dreamy girl etc. Jean-Baptiste Greuze was a French academic painter. His major theme of the paintings was based on mythological themes by interpreting modern classical subjects emphasized on exploring women body. Jean-Baptiste Greuze's 'The Dreamer' is one of the remarkable pieces of art work. The purpose of the artist in the nude picture of a girl is to express the woman as a symbol of fertility. On the other hand, the woman is a goddess known as Venus. She has landed on Earth from the heavens. The woman in the painting has been portrayed as a very beautiful woman with curly golden hair. She is sitting buck naked while her genitals are hidden under the grey cloth and her breasts are slightly hidden besides her left arm. The appearances and expressions of women in the art works are quite distinct. The woman in the painting is expressionless.

Discussion and Analysis

Jean-Baptiste Greuze was the most important French painter of the mid 18th century. His most appreciated works today are his portraits, such as the superbly commanding J.G. Wille (1763; Musee Jacquemart-Andre, Paris). His true significance lies in the contemporary success of his genre paintings such as The Dreamer. His subjects are peasants, the working class, and the lower bourgeoisie. Unlike a straightforward genre painter, Greuze is not interested in quaintness of detail, prettiness of color, or whimsicality of emotion. He neither pokes fun at the lower classes nor adopts an attitude of condescension towards them. Rather, like a traditional history painter, he is concerned with mankind in general, and with representing the balance or imbalance between the passions and the intellect. The ...