Cleveland Museum of Art
Madame Greuze Asleep
Jean-Michel the Younger Moreau
- Date
- 1776
- Medium
- etching and engraving
- Culture
- France, 18th century
- Department
- Prints
- Institution
- Cleveland Museum of Art
Presented as an allegorical figure of philosophy, a woman slumbers among the traditional trappings of a scholar’s study: a writing desk with feather pen, piles of books, and a celestial globe. The model was Anne-Gabrielle Babuti, wife of Jean-Baptiste Greuze, who prepared the original drawing for Moreau to replicate. Contracts with printmakers show that Anne-Gabrielle actively participated in the production of her husband’s work for the print market. Although she appears mild here, Anne-Gabrielle had a reputation for being greedy and promiscuous. Greuze filed for divorce when it became legal in 1793, claiming that his wife “carried adultery to the point of shamelessness, cynicism to the point of unimaginable insolence.”
The authoritative record is held by Cleveland Museum of Art. LinkedCulture surfaces this object and its connections; it does not alter institutional metadata.
Related across collections
Semantically similar works from Cleveland Museum of Art and other institutions.
Study of the Head of an Old Woman
Getty Museum
Portrait of the Artist's Wife Asleep (Marie Guilloux)
Art Institute of Chicago
Portrait of the Artist's Mother
Art Institute of Chicago
Women and Children Mourning a Dead Man
Art Institute of Chicago
The Laundress (La Blanchisseuse)
Getty Museum
The Charitable Woman (La Dame de Charité)
Getty Museum
Head of a Young Woman
Cleveland Museum of Art
The Guilty and Repentant Daughter
Cleveland Museum of Art
Head of a Young Woman Asleep
Art Institute of Chicago
The Return of the Young Hunter
Minneapolis Institute of Art
Elles: Woman Sleeping
Cleveland Museum of Art
The Paternal Blessing, or The Departure of Basile
Art Institute of Chicago