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Jean Baptiste Greuze

Women and Children Mourning a Dead Man

1778
Pen and brown ink, and brush and gray and brown wash, with graphite, on cream laid paper, laid down on ivory laid paper, laid down on ivory laid paper
24.9 × 32.4 cm (9.8 × 12.8 in)

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In the collection of Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago · as of July 2026

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FROM THE ART INSTITUTE OF CHICAGO’S CATALOG

In the third quarter of the 18th century, a young generation of artists developed a sober, almost classicizing reaction to the artificial frivolities of artists like François Boucher. Greuze depicted scenes from daily life that were intended to be inspirational or morally uplifting. This drawing is a study for his painting of 1778 (now in the Musée du Louvre, Paris) showing the errant son who has returned home just as his father has died.

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