Portrait of Jean-Georges Wille (1715-1808)

This portrait depicts Jean-Georges Wille, the prominent German-born engraver who settled in Paris and became one of the most influential printmakers of the eighteenth century. Wille was instrumental in promoting Greuze's early career, and this 1763 portrait captures the engraver at the height of his reputation, when his shop on the Quai des Grands-Augustins was a gathering place for artists and connoisseurs. celebrated at the Salon for moralizing genre scenes, later shifted to portraiture and provocative heads.

The portrait shows assured handling with careful attention to the sitter's intelligent expression, rendered through subtle tonal modulations and precise draftsmanship in the features.