Reclining River God
Jean-Baptiste Greuze, the 18th-century superstar of sentimental family scenes, is showing off his serious chops here with a muscular River God. Rendered in vigorous red chalk, the figure twists dramatically away from us, leaning against a water-pouring urn in a pose that screams classical training. Greuze desperately wanted to be accepted as a high-ranking history painter, not just a genre painter, so he produced studies like this to prove he could handle mythological subjects and complex anatomy. Sadly, the Academy rejected his big history painting later on, leaving him bitter for the rest of his life!
- Technique
- Red chalk
- Material
- Paper
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