Portrait of Madame de Champcenetz

This portrait of Madame de Champcenetz dates from around 1770, when Greuze was at the peak of his portraiture practice among the Parisian aristocracy. The sitter's family was connected to the court of Louis XV, reflecting the elevated social circles Greuze frequented despite his preference for painting scenes of bourgeois and rural life. The erotic charge beneath Greuze's apparently moral female subjects—disheveled hair, parted lips, unguarded expressions—scandalized moralists and delighted collectors simultaneously, making him simultaneously the most praised and most criticized French painter of the 1760s.

Delicate color harmonies and refined brushwork in the face contrast with more broadly painted costume and background, focusing the viewer's attention on the sitter's expression.