The broken jug - Greuze
Autre numéro d'inventaire : MR 1779
Description
We shouldn't be too quick to jump to the allegorical reading of the painting, according to which the broken jug denotes the loss of virginity. The scene is at first much more anodyne : the young girl carries in the folds of her dress an armful of carnations, which she has gone to pick in the garden ; She had probably taken the jug with her to put them in a vase. But having broken it, she doesn't know what to do with her flowers, hence her rather silly embarrassment...
Gessner wrote an idyll about The Broken Jug. But it's a faun who broke his jug...
2. Exhibited in Greuze's studio in 1777. Collection of the Countess Du Barry in Louveciennes. Revolutionary seizure in 1793 to enter the collections of the Museum central des arts de la République, then the Louvre.
3. Engraved by J. Massard in 1773. Reverse engraving, dedicated to Mlle Sophie Arnoud, pensionnaire du roi et première actrice de l'Académie royale de musique. Cote Bnf Estampes Dc 8b Fol, Folio 10. See also engraving by Gustave Lévy, 1878, Dc 8 Fol, folio 34.
On October 1, 1875, Huysmans devoted an article to La Cruche cassée in Le Musée des deux-mondes.
Technical Data
Notice #001071