Reading the Greuze Girl
The Daughter's Seduction
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 4964692 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Emma Barker (0009-0006-1239-8142, corresponding author) |
| Year | 2012 |
| Volume | 117 |
| Issue | 1 |
| Pages | 86-119 |
| Publication date | 2012-02-01 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | No |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Representations (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 0734-6018 • E-ISSN: 1533-855X |
| Publisher | University of California Press (PUBLISHER • US) |
| DOI | 10.1525/rep.2012.117.1.86 |
| OpenAlex | W2003556790 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 1 |
| References cited | 10 |
This essay challenges the generally accepted interpretation of Greuze's Young Girl Weeping over Her Dead Bird (1765) as an allegory of lost virginity by considering the painting in relation to eighteenth-century representations of the young girl in a range of discourses. The central contention is that the implied spectator to whom the picture is addressed is a quasi-paternal figure who disavows his own desire for the girl whilst nevertheless enjoying an eroticized intimacy with her. In thereby raising the specter of incest even as it represses it, the painting exemplifies deep-seated tensions within later eighteenth-century French culture
Allegory · Art · Art history · Close reading · Daughter · Developmental psychology · Girl · Interpretation (philosophy · Linguistics · Literature · Painting · Psychoanalysis · Reading (process · Relation (database · Virginity test · Historical Art and Culture Studies · Historical Gender and Feminism Studies · Historical Studies on Reproduction, Gender, Health, and Societal Changes · Law · Philosophy · Psychology
| Unique citing works | 1 |
|---|---|
| Citations per year | 0,17 |
| Citation span | 2020 - 2020 (1) |
| Citation velocity | historical |
| Highly cited | No |
| Citation types | Neutral: 1 |