L'aveugle trompé

L'aveugle trompé — The Blind Man Deceived — belongs to Greuze's comic-satirical vein, in which he depicted figures humiliated by those who should care for them. A blind man being deceived by a woman carries multiple layers: the proverb of love's blindness, the vulnerability of disability exploited by feminine cunning, and the comedy of a respectable old man made ridiculous. This painting sits within an eighteenth-century tradition of 'unequal couple' imagery in which age, blindness, and credulity are punished by youth and cunning — a tradition rooted in Dutch genre painting that Greuze's French contemporaries enjoyed without entirely endorsing.

Greuze's compositional skill is evident in how clearly the deception is legible to the viewer while the blind man remains oblivious — the deceiver's expression and gesture directed at the viewer as co-conspirators in witnessing the comedy. His smooth flesh rendering gives the deceiving face an irresistible clarity.