The Listening Woman c. 1780s

Jean-Baptiste Greuze, a French artist, painted 'The Listening Woman' in the eighteenth century, using oil on canvas. Here, the model’s pose and expression are staged and sentimental; she tilts her head to better hear a sound, real or imagined. Greuze emerged during the Enlightenment, a period of great intellectual and social change that questioned inherited beliefs about power and authority. He specialized in moralizing genre painting, and portraits that captured intense emotions and psychological states. He had hoped to be admitted as a history painter in the Académie Royale, but they only accepted him as a genre painter. To understand art from the past, we must examine how institutions have shaped its creation and reception. To learn more about Greuze, it is important to view the archives from the Académie Royale. Studying those records can reveal how an artist navigates the politics of the art world in pursuit of their ambitions.