LEROY (FL. C. 1775) AFTER JEAN-BAPTISTE GREUZE (FRENCH, 1725-1825)

The present miniature derives from a large-scale painting by Greuze entitled L'accordée de village, now in the Louvre, Paris (inv. no. 5037). Greuze exhibited it alongside five other paintings in the Salon of 1761, to great critical acclaim. Commentator Diderot commented that the crowds around it were so large that he could not approach it without difficulty. As an early 'moral painting', it was praised for its strong narrative and excellent rendering of ordinary people in an everday situation. Reproduced widely, it was also the inspiration for a literary work of the same name by Jean-Louis Aubert (1731-1814).