Jean Baptiste Greuze (Tournus 1725-1805 Paris)

Head of a Young Woman was in the celebrated collection of Pierre Louis Paul Randon de Boisset (1708-1776), an immensely wealthy fermier général and Reçeveur Général des Finances of Lyon, who built up a huge library and extensive collection of paintings, drawings, sculptures and porcelains. Advised by the artists Jean Baptiste Greuze, François Boucher and Hubert Robert, Randon de Boisset assembled one of the finest Dutch and Flemish picture cabinets in Europe, which sold after his death for sums not again equaled in the 18th century.

The present lot is closely related to Greuze's famous painting La Cruche Cassée (Paris, Musée du Louvre), which was finished in 1777 and was in the collection of the Marquise du Barry. Our canvas must have been executed only slightly earlier and would have been among Randon de Boisset's final purchases before his death. It appeared with a pendant as lot 208 in his estate sale, but it was still owned by his descendants (according to Eudel and Martin) when it was sold in 1885. It was one of 17 paintings and pastels by Greuze to appear in the sale.