Portrait of a Young Boy

This portrait sketch of a young boy, head and shoulders, with a white collar is typical of Grimou’s artistic output. A pupil of Jean-Fran�ois de Troy, Grimou took from his master a warm palette and added to it an audacity of handling which places him squarely in the 18th century. Often intimate in nature and executed with brushstrokes of a great spontaneity, works like the present clearly provoked the fantasy portraits later sketched by Jean-Honor� Fragonard who, moreover, painted pastiches in Grimou’s manner. Grimou’s influence can also be discerned in the work of Jean-Baptiste Greuze. Grimou himself sought inspiration from the Dutch Golden Age, with a debt to Rembrandt seen here in the beautifully rendered chiaroscuro.