Reclining River God
Medium
Red chalk; framing lines in pen and brown ink
Dimensions
18 7/16 x 24 7/8 in. (46.8 x 63.2 cm)
Classification
Drawings
Department
Drawings and Prints
Museum
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY
Credit
Purchase, Joseph Pulitzer Bequest, 1960
Accession Number
61.1.2
Tags
Art Historical Context
Jean-Baptiste Greuze's *Reclining River God a masterful red chalk drawing from the late 18th century, the sensual form of a mythological male nude lounging in classical repose. Rendered with framing lines in pen and brown, this large-scale sheet (18 7/16 x 24 7/8 in.) exemplifies Greuze's skill in figure studies, likely created as a preparatory work or independent académie. The soft, warm tones of red chalk—known as sanguine—allow for exquisite modeling of the figure's musculature and flowing contours, evoking the vitality of ancient river deities from Greco-Roman mythology. Greuze, a promine...
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...