The Angry Wife

Jean-Baptiste Greuze

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

Greuze achieved success with his paintings of everyday life that emphasized moral values. This scene of domestic chaos, which the artist drew as a model for an engraving, refers to episodes from his own life. About the time he executed this drawing, Greuze recounted instances of his wife’s violent outbursts in the deposition he made to obtain a legal separation. Here, wild-eyed and wielding a decanter above her head, she bursts into the room to accost her husband, who cowers between his daughters at left. The barking dog, broken bottle, overturned chair, and steaming dish all signal the disarray of the household. The contrasting manners of husband and wife also invert the "natural" gender roles assigned by Enlightenment thinkers.

Drawings and Prints

An exhibit at Metropolitan Museum of Art

The Department’s vast collection of works on paper comprises approximately 21,000 drawings, 1.2 million prints, and 12,000 illustrated books created in Europe and the Americas from about 1400 to the present day. Since its foundation in 1916, the Department has been committed to collecting a wide range of works on paper, which includes both pieces that are incredibly rare and lauded for their aesthetic appeal, as well as material that is more popular, functional, and ephemeral. The broad scope of the department’s collecting encourages questions of connoisseurship as well as those pertaining to function and context, and demonstrates the vital role that prints, drawings, and illustrated books have played throughout history.

Metropolitan Museum of Art