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<p>[QUOTE=&quot;Salvatorparadise, post: 32694, member: 76&quot;]Bought this at an estate auction. Finally got around to looking at it closely today. So I see the JB Greuze Paris 1798 in pencil on the back, and then old label with &quot;Admiration/Jean Baptiste Greuze/French 1798&quot; on the back. I look up this guy, and it turns out he&#039;s a really major french artist. Then I research the old gallery label and find it is from James Bourlet, who have been around since the 19th c. as a biz that puts on exhibitions, frames and restores art.</p><p><br /></p><p>So, I look high and low through Greuze paintings, which this resembles. Greuze apparently went through this &quot;head of a woman&quot; phase late in his career and also had given these works titles such as &quot;admiration and desire.&quot;</p><p><br /></p><p>Anyway, I finally found a work of Greuze that looks very similar to this one. I found it at this site here, <a href="http://www.fineart-china.com/htmlimg/image-43246.html" target="_blank" class="externalLink ProxyLink" data-proxy-href="http://www.fineart-china.com/htmlimg/image-43246.html" rel="nofollow">http://www.fineart-china.com/htmlimg/image-43246.html</a>, which sells reproductions. The thing is I can&#039;t find this portrait anywhere else on the web, and the site gives no source, as in, where this work resides.&nbsp; I wrote the owner of the site (apparently in china) asking where this painting comes from. I&#039;m hopeful that I&#039;ll get a reply.</p><p><br /></p><p>So, the frame is obviously newer. Stretchers are old but the tacks in the canvas are 20th c. (i think). The painting itself appears quite early, and looks to have had some kind of cleaning although the surface has a heavy coating of varnish which gives this painting a brown look. Also, the horrible pink of the clothes was added later and is on top of the varnish (there is even a tiny speck lower down of the pink where it must have splattered). the lips looked horribly touched up, too. It also appears that some old damage was repaired at some time before this browning varnish went on.</p><p><br /></p><p>Anyway, what do you all think about my mystery here? I suppose this could be a copy of the above work that I linked to or another version of that work, perhaps a study by Greuze himself. His paintings seem to range from incredibly fine like the one linked to above to evocative but sort of not quite so realistic looking. Unfortunately, his works were not typically signed. Would like to get everyone&#039;s thoughts. I attached a ton of photos. Thanks!</p><p><br /></p><p>[ATTACH=full]8243[/ATTACH] [ATTACH=full]8244[/ATTACH] [ATTACH=full]8245[/ATTACH] [ATTACH=full]8246[/ATTACH] [ATTACH=full]8247[/ATTACH] [ATTACH=full]8250[/ATTACH] [ATTACH=full]8251[/ATTACH] [ATTACH=full]8252[/ATTACH][/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

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