Reading the Bible

On 28 June 1755 Greuze, then 29, brought this canvas to the Royal Academy of Painting as part of his bid for admission, and that August it hung at the Salon in the Louvre. An old man reads aloud from a heavy Bible while his family listens. A young woman rests her head on her hand, an older woman at the side holds a distaff for spinning, and on the floor a small boy points at a little dog, which turns toward him. The collector La Live de Jully bought the picture that same year for 1200 livres. At an auction in 1777 it fetched 6700 livres, more than five times as much. In 2012 France declared it a national treasure, blocking its export, and the State bought it for the Louvre, where it arrived in 2016.