Filial Piety (The Paralytic)

Filial Piety, also known as The Paralytic, was exhibited at the 1763 Salon to enormous acclaim and secured Greuze's reputation as the leading painter of moral sentiment. The painting depicts a family tending to their paralyzed patriarch, embodying the Enlightenment ideal of domestic virtue that Diderot praised as a new kind of painting that could rival the moral force of classical tragedy. Characteristic of Greuze's approach, the work displays emotionally expressive figures, theatrical lighting, combining Rococo charm with didactic purpose.

The complex multi-figure composition is organized around the central bed with theatrical lighting that draws the eye through the family group, each member rendered with individualized expression and gesture.