Art du Jour! The Milkmaid

 Greuze, Jean-Baptiste.  The Milkmaid. Before 1784, oil on canvas. Musée du Louvre.

11 comments:

  1. Beautiful painting! I've never seen it before. She looks exhausted though, must have been a lot of milking that day!

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  2. Oh, she is luscious and slightly disheveled. Is that a very small horse or a donkey? Donkey-size, but surely that's a horse's face? He (or she) is quite sweet.

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  3. The persimmon color of her skirt is gorgeous. Love this painting.

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  4. The persimmon is what drew me in instantly! She is a bit disheveled, she clearly has something to say...

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  5. Did it occur to anyone that this is no ordinary milkmaid?

    Perhaps she is a lady who is a 'milkmaid' at Marie Antoinette's idealized farm next to her Petit Trianon?

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  6. I could see that. I truthfully have always found this aspect of court life pretty hard to take. I mean, if you were poor, limited in choices and HAD to milk for a living, to see these wealthy aristocrats swishing around in silk versions of your clothes, playing at what is work to you, you might want to see a few heads roll.

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  8. This milkmaid looks so beautiful and angelic I thought for a moment she had been painted by Vigee-Lebrun. Thank you for sharing such a lovely image.

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  9. I had not seen this post before. This is lovely. Who painted it and who is the model - if she is one of the "milkmaids" at PT?

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  10. Anonymous12:42 PM

    Aristocratic ladies had a habit during this period of posing as milk maids, laundry maids, and shepherdesses. I wonder if the model was one of those aristos? Lovely painting. - Vic

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  11. Anonymous12:30 AM

    The model is Greuze's wife.

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