The Paralytic
by GREUZE, Jean-Baptiste, Oil on canvas, 115 x 146 cm
The didactic message that Diderot hailed in the Paralytic or The Fruits of a Good Upbringing (exhibited at the Salon of 1763) forces the personages to assume expressive theatrical poses, but does not strip their faces of the superficial sentimentality typical of the Rococo. With this “high-moral coquetry,” Greuze undoubtedly paved the way for the academic painting of the nineteenth century.