Jean Jacques Caffiéri (1725–1792)
ca. 1765
Medium
Oil on canvas
Dimensions
Oval, 25 1/4 x 20 3/4 in. (64.1 x 52.7 cm)
Classification
Paintings
Department
European Paintings
Museum
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY
Credit
Bequest of Ethel Tod Humphrys, 1956
Accession Number
56.55.3
Tags
Art Historical Context
This elegant oval portrait by Jean-Baptiste Greuze captures Jean Jacques Caffiéri1725–1792), a prominent figure in 18th-century France, painted around 1765. Greuze, a leading French artist transitioning from Rococo exuberance to the emerging Neoclassical emphasis on moral clarity and realism, specialized in intimate portraits and sentimental genre scenes. Here, in oil on canvas measuring 25¼ × 20¾ inches, he renders Caffiéri with a penetrating gaze and subtle modeling of features, highlighting the subject's dignified presence amid the opulent pre-Revolutionary era. The oval format, popular fo...
About the Artist
Jean-Baptiste Greuze · 1725–1805
Jean-Baptiste Greuze (1725–1805) was a French painter whose moralistic genre scenes and expressive portraits made him one of the most celebrated and controversial artists of the eighteenth century. Born in Tournus, Burgundy, Greuze traveled to Paris in his youth and trained under Charles Grandon before gaining admission to the Académie Royale de Peinture et de Sculpture, where he made a sensationa...