Young Girl from the Back

This unusual composition showing a young girl from behind demonstrates Greuze's interest in capturing intimate, unguarded moments. Dating from around 1775, the work belongs to his prolific production of têtes d'expression, studies of idealized female heads and figures that were widely collected and frequently reproduced in engravings. 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.

The turned pose creates an intimate atmosphere, with Greuze's characteristic soft modeling of flesh and hair contrasting with more summary treatment of the background.