Guitar player

Jean-Baptiste Greuze
Artist Jean-Baptiste Greuze
Date 1755-1757
Medium Oil on canvas
Collection Louvre Museum
Copyright Public domain. Free for personal & commercial use.

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About the Artist

Jean-Baptiste Greuze
French (1725–1805)
Emerging during the Rococo period but resisting its frivolity, this French painter carved a niche with emotionally charged genre scenes and moralizing narratives. His work, often teetering between sentimentality and sharp social critique, captured the tensions of pre-Revolutionary France. While contemporaries like Fragonard indulged in aristocratic whimsy, he turned to domestic dramas—fallen maidens, grieving parents, mischievous children—rendered with theatrical lighting and meticulous detail. Critics praised his ability to convey vulnerability, though some dismissed his compositions as overly staged, like frozen moments from a morality play. The artist’s later years were marked by decline. After failing to secure recognition as a history painter—the pinnacle of academic prestige—he grew embittered, though his influence persisted. Greuze’s emphasis on facial expression and narrative tension foreshadowed Romanticism, while his unflinching gaze at human frailty resonated with Realists like Courbet. Today, his works oscillate between admiration and discomfort, their exaggerated pathos a reminder of how emotion can tip into melodrama. Yet in pieces like *The Broken Pitcher*, there’s an undeniable power—a glimpse into the 18th century’s uneasy conscience.

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Artwork Story

Jean-Baptiste Greuze’s Guitar Player captures a fleeting moment of musical intimacy, where the subject’s fingers hover over the strings as if caught mid-melody. The warm, earthy tones of the painting draw attention to the delicate play of light on the guitarist’s face, revealing a quiet intensity in their expression. Greuze, known for his ability to infuse everyday scenes with emotional depth, transforms this simple performance into something almost theatrical—the folds of the musician’s sleeve ripple with movement, suggesting a life beyond the canvas.

What makes this work particularly intriguing is the ambiguity of the guitarist’s identity—are they a street performer, a nobleman’s entertainer, or simply lost in private reverie? The loose brushstrokes around the instrument contrast with the meticulous rendering of the hands, emphasizing the tactile connection between player and music. Unlike Greuze’s more overtly moralizing works, this piece feels spontaneous, as though the artist stumbled upon the scene and rushed to preserve its raw energy.

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