Self-portrait

Greuze's Self-Portrait of 1769 captures him at approximately forty-five years of age, at the peak of his fame as the painter of sentimental moral scenes that Diderot had championed with such enthusiasm. The work belongs to a tradition of artist self-portraits as statements of professional identity and intellectual standing, and Greuze presents himself with the directness and psychological intensity that characterize his best figure painting. The same year, he suffered the notorious rejection of his history painting Septimius Severus by the Académie, who admitted him only as a genre painter — a humiliation that affected him deeply.

Greuze's self-portrait likely employs his characteristic technique of fine, blended brushwork building up a luminous, slightly porcelain-like surface. The direct gaze and informal dress suggest a candid, psychologically searching approach to his own image.