
Public data from the Art Institute of Chicago. Learn more
The Paternal Blessing, or The Departure of Basile
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.
Exhibition history
Paris, Salon, 1769. Minneapolis, Minn., The University of Minnesota, University Gallery, "The Eighteenth Century: One Hundred Drawings by One Hundred Artists," 1961, cat. 35. New York, Wildenstein and Company, "Master Drawings from The Art Institute of Chicago," October 17-November 30, 1963, n.p., cat. 56, as "The Return of the Prodigal Son." The Art Institute of Chicago, "Selected Works of 18th Century French Art in the Collections of The Art Institute of Chicago," January 24-March 28, 1976, pp. 62-63, cat. 54 (ill.). Paris, Musée du Louvre, "Dessins français de l’Art Institute de Chicago de Watteau à Picasso," October 15, 1976-January 17, 1977, n.p., cat. 15 (ill.). Frankfurt am Main, Germany, Städtische Galerie im Städelschen Kunstinstitut, "Französische Zeichnungen aus dem Art Institute of Chicago," February 10-April 10, 1977, pp. 56-57, cat. 24 (ill.). The Art Institute of Chicago, "Gods and (Super)heroes: Drawing in an Age of Revolution", November 16, 2017 - April 1, 2018.
Publications
Jean Martin, Oeuvre de J.-B. Greuze (Paris, 1908), no. 256. The Art Institute of Chicago Annual Report (1955-1956), p. 21 (ill.). Edgar Munhall, "Greuze and Protestant Spirit," The Art Quarterly, 27 (1964), pp. 3-23 (ill.). Jean Seznec and Jean Adhemar, Salons, 4 (Oxford, 1967), p. 108, no. 46. R. Fernandez, "Greuze's Paternal Blessing," The Art Institute of Chicago Museum Studies, 5 (1970), pp. 91-95 (ill.). Harold Joachim, French Drawings and Sketchbooks of the 18th Century (Chicago, 1979), no. 1E11. Emma Barker, Greuze and the Painting of Sentiment (Cambridge, 2001).
Quick Overview
- Artist
- Jean-Baptiste Greuze / French, 1725-1805
- 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
- Dimensions
- 37.3 × 50.8 cm (14 11/16 × 20 in.)
- Type
- Drawing
- Classification
- pen and ink drawings
- Place
- France
- Department
- Prints and Drawings
- Credit line
- Gift of Mrs. Leigh B. Block
- Accession no.
- 1955.1003
More by Jean-Baptiste Greuze in museum collections
Data retrieved from the Art Institute of Chicago on October 8, 2026. The museum may have updated its record since.
Open-access museum record · AT-00004060
Powered by Art Trackers



