Jean-Baptiste Greuze: Portrait of Charles Claude de Flahaut (1763)

(Metropolitan museum of Art, New York, USA)

A painting by the French artist Jean-Baptiste Greuze (1725-1805). Although Greuze primarily produced genre scenes, he also made some portraits. This painting is a portrait of Charles-Claude Flahaut de la Billaderie, comte d'Angiviller (1730–1810). D'Angiviller was a member of the French court of king Louis XV and XVI of France and later of L. He was first in charge of the household of the sons of Louis, Dauphin of France (1729 – 1765). When the dauphin (the dauphin of France was the dynastic title given to the heir apparent to the throne of France) died in 1765, his son Louis became king of France as Louis XVI. for his services d'Angiviller was rewarded by king Louis XVI by naming d'Angiviller as the director general of the Batîments du Roi. As such he was responsible for building works at the King's residences in and around Paris - a position which was the equivalent of a minister of culture. He held the position until 1789 when the French revolution broke out. During the French revolution he was accused of misappropriation of public funds and he fled France. D'Angiviller died in exile in 1810 in Hamburg, Germany. This painting is from 1763.