Self-Portrait

Greuze was in his late 50s when he conceived of this portrait of himself. It was a difficult period for him personally, because his notoriously difficult marriage was finally coming apart, but at the same time he was painting some of his most important genre pictures. In these he created scenes from contemporary life that combined an unblinkered view of the world around him with a style derived from the grand manner of the traditional historical painter. His penetrating insight into his subjects’ motivation and personality is also evident in the portraits and self-portraits of which he made many at this time.