Jean Baptiste Greuze 'the Pea Feast' 38 X 46 Cm. Signed Work.

Jean-Baptiste Greuze. "The Pea Feast." This charming painting depicts a humble French peasant family, immortalizing a suggestive scene of family life. The head of the family holds a basket of peas, while his two daughters, kneeling near a barrel serving as a table, are busy peeling vegetables. The mother watches over her young son, who, trousers down, goes about his business while having breakfast with a cup of milk. The spontaneity of the scene makes this domestic image a raw sample of the life of the rural poor of the mid-18th century. The genre of the scene is fully in keeping with the style of the painter Jean-Baptiste Greuze, considered an immature work of his youth. He often evoked family interiors in the Flemish manner, as evidenced by the various objects hanging on the walls, ever more mastering the pictorial line and the meticulousness of the figures. The original canvas and frame allow us to date this painting to the mid-18th century, precisely during the refined painter's youth. The work is signed lower right on a wooden board. (37 x 46 cm)