Self-Portrait

Greuze was about 60 when he painted himself in this oval, around 1785, in a powdered wig, a blue coat, a grey waistcoat and a cravat. By then he had not sent a single picture to the official Salon for 16 years. He showed new work instead to visitors in his own studio, which was in the Louvre, and buyers came to him there. He returned to the Salon only in 1800, at 75, when the Revolution had opened it to all artists. This portrait entered the royal collection of Louis XVIII in 1820, bought for 2000 francs from a Monsieur Spontini.