# Ange Laurent de La Live de Jully

**Jean Baptiste Greuze** (French, 1725–1805)  
probably 1759  
oil on canvas  
overall: 117 x 88.5 cm (46 1/16 x 34 13/16 in.) framed: 161.9 x 121.9 cm (63 3/4 x 48 in.)

Courtesy National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1946.7.8. [The museum's record](https://www.nga.gov/collection/art-object-page.32686.html).

## About this work

The collector Ange Laurent de La Live de Jully sits at his harp in a loose white shirt and rose-pink breeches, turning from the strings to smile at us, in a room furnished with a gilded chair and a table of books, portfolios and a statuette. La Live de Jully was one of the most adventurous collectors in Paris and an early patron of Greuze, who here gives him an informal, intimate air, a man of taste at home among his music and his books.

_Written by Ochre Editions._

Jean Baptiste Greuze painted this (probably 1759), aged 34. It is now at the National Gallery of Art in Washington, DC.

### What you’re looking at

A pale-skinned man sits facing our left as he plays a harp while turning his face to smile at us in this vertical portrait painting. He looks out the corners of his light blue eyes under arched, gray brows. He has a rounded nose, pale pink lips, and a round face. Gray hair is brushed back from his high forehead and curls around his ears. His long fingers rest on the strings of the harp, and the ends of strings curl like wind-loosened strands of hair along the top edge. The man wears a pale mauve-purple cravat, and his snow-white, long-sleeved chemise is untucked and loose around his thighs. The cuff we see is open and folded back over a bright white shirt edged with lace. His dusky rose-pink breeches are unbuttoned at the knee over white stockings. The square-seated chair on which he sits is carved with garlands and floral patterns, which are gilded gold. The seat itself is topaz blue, and it has a low back. A similarly ornamented and gilded table along the back of the room holds a portfolio and roll of papers, the tooled and gilded spines of books, and a statuette to the right. The pale pinkish-orange statuette shows a woman holding a tablet and wearing a long, loose robe and head covering. Her body angles to our left and she looks off in that direction. The wall behind the table is mottled with smoky shades of gray and tan.

_Description from the National Gallery of Art._

### How it was made

- **Oil paint.** Pigment ground in a drying oil, usually linseed. It dries slowly, so painters could blend on the canvas, build up thin translucent glazes, and rework a picture over weeks. Canvas replaced wooden panels in the 1500s because it is lighter and can be rolled.

### [Jean Baptiste Greuze](https://www.ochreeditions.com/artists/jean-baptiste-greuze)

French, 1725–1805; born in Tournus; died in Paris

Greuze rose to fame at the Paris Salon in the later 1750s with moralising scenes of family life, sentimental and theatrical, which the critic Denis Diderot championed. Broken Eggs, shown at the Salon of 1757, tells a story of lost innocence through a single domestic incident. When the Academy received him in 1769 as a genre painter rather than a history painter, he withdrew from the Salon for many years.

_Written by Ochre Editions._

## Facts

- Type: Painting
- The artist was 34
- Real size: about 46 × 35 in (117 × 89 cm). The original is larger than our largest print, 24 × 36 in, so every print is a reduction.
- Century: 18th century
- Subjects: male, La Live de Jully, Ange Laurent de
- Colour: brown
- Rights: public domain (CC0 1.0); free to use for any purpose.

## Get it

- Free download, full resolution: https://img.ochreeditions.com/m/1480.jpg?dl=1
- Image: https://img.ochreeditions.com/a/1480/1920.jpg
- Giclée reproduction on Hahnemühle Photo Rag: 8 × 10 in $28; 11 × 14 in $38; 12 × 16 in $42; 16 × 20 in $56; 18 × 24 in $68; 20 × 30 in $86; 24 × 36 in $108
- Framed reproduction: 8 × 10 in $78; 11 × 14 in $98; 12 × 16 in $108; 16 × 20 in $138; 18 × 24 in $164; 20 × 30 in $208; 24 × 36 in $258
- Canvas reproduction: 8 × 10 in $58; 11 × 14 in $72; 12 × 16 in $79; 16 × 20 in $98; 18 × 24 in $118; 20 × 30 in $148
- Print-ready file: 8 × 10 in $2; 11 × 14 in $2; 12 × 16 in $3; 16 × 20 in $3; 18 × 24 in $3; 20 × 30 in $5; 24 × 36 in $5

Sizes stop where the museum's file would print below 150 pixels per inch. Everything sold is a reproduction, made to order. [Order a print](https://www.ochreeditions.com/art/ange-laurent-de-la-live-de-jully-nga-32686).