# Study of a Groom

**Jean Baptiste Greuze** (French, 1725–1805)  
c. 1760  
Black chalk, with stumping and black crayon, red and brown chalk, heightened with white chalk, on buff laid paper, laid down on cream laid paper  
50.7 × 29.4 cm (20 × 11 5/8 in.)

Courtesy of the Art Institute of Chicago, 1968.461. [The museum's record](https://www.artic.edu/artworks/29903).

## About this work

Jean Baptiste Greuze painted this in about 1760, aged about 30. It is now at the Art Institute of Chicago.

### What you’re looking at

A work made of black chalk, with stumping and black crayon, red and brown chalk, heightened with white chalk, on buff laid paper, laid down on cream laid paper.

_Description from the Art Institute of Chicago._

### How it was made

- **Chalk.** Natural black, red and white chalks. Used together on toned paper they could give the warmth of flesh with very little effort, and they were favourites for studies from life.
- **Laid paper.** Handmade on a mould of close-set wires, which leave fine parallel lines you can see when the sheet is held to the light.

### [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: Drawing and Watercolor
- Culture: France
- The artist was about 30
- Real size: about 20 × 11 in (50 × 29 cm). The 16 × 20 in print is close to life size.
- Century: 18th century
- 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/123.jpg?dl=1
- Image: https://img.ochreeditions.com/a/123/1920.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; 30 × 40 in $148
- 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; 30 × 40 in $338
- 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; 24 × 36 in $178; 30 × 40 in $228
- 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; 30 × 40 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/study-of-a-groom-aic-29903).