Art Institute of Chicago
The Paternal Blessing, or The Departure of Basile
Jean-Baptiste GreuzeLinkedCulture matchlcp-d793c8295d26
- Date
- c. 1769
- Medium
- Pen and brown ink, brush and black ink, gray wash and graphite, with traces of scraping, on tan laid paper, laid down on tan wove board
- Culture
- France
- Department
- Prints and Drawings
- Institution
- Art Institute of Chicago
- Object ID
- 84277
From the Art Institute of Chicago record
The second half of the 1700s was an age of great sentiment; tears flowed profusely in art and literature. Jean-Baptiste Greuze in particular capitalized on this cult of feeling. The Paternal Blessing was an illustration for a pictorial narrative by Greuze called Bazile and Thibault , or The Two Educations . It told the story of two brothers, one good and one bad. Reflecting theories of nature versus nurture espoused by the philosopher Jean-Jacques Rousseau (1712–78), Bazile became a good man because he had been breast-fed as an infant at home, while Thibault became a bad man because he had been sent away to a wet nurse. Here, Bazile receives his father’s blessing before setting out on his own.
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Provenance & credit
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- Credit line
- Gift of Mrs. Leigh B. Block
- Provenance
- General Brunet-Denon (Baron D. Vivant-Denon) [Lugt 779]; sold, Hôtel des Ventes Mobilières, Paris, February 2-15, 1846, lot 186. Lucien Guiraud (died 1954), Paris [according to Joachim 1979]. Sold by Dr. Otto Wertheimer, Paris, to the Art Institute, 1955.
Linked open data
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- Object type
- AAT300033973
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