Woman with Red Ribbon

The two paintings of young women that pertain to this collection clearly compose a pendant (pair): both are related in terms of the framing of the figure and its pictorial handling in addition to the composition, which orients them one toward the right and the other toward the left, establishing a sort of conversation between them. They are attributed to Jean-Baptiste Greuze, and the two could well be an example of historicized portraits; in other words, those where the person portrayed takes on the role of a mythological or historical figure. In some cases, this formula has been used to represent two people who are surely related- brothers, mother and child, etc. -who adopt the principal characteristics of the figure of reference, especially when dealing with instances where they are qualities common to both. In our case, the pendant presents two women dressed in rural attire that leads us to assume that we are dealing with two shepherdesses of Arcadia, a theme that was typically evoked in Europe during the 18th century. The anatomy of the two figures has been achieved on the basis of a construction that accentuates the volume of the forms, something that can be seen in other drawings by the artist.
As is the case with other figures by Greuze, the women in our works are distinguished by the handling of color in the flesh and clothing, which is harmonized in tones that range from pink to red, contrasting with yellows, ochres and whites that stand out against the dark backgrounds. The flesh is achieved using a pictorial technique that produces a smooth surface and transparency that are enriched with the blushing tones that cover the cheeks, the pink of the lips and the soft shadows with which the busts are modeled. For their part, the treatment of the fabrics is handled in such a way to express large folds that are highlighted with shiny reflections like those of satin.