La Simplicite Critical Review

This painting, called La Simplicite, depicts a young woman plucking the petals off of a white flower. It is a work done with oil on canvas and was completed by the French artist, Jean-Baptiste Greuze in 1759. She is near an open landscape; a dark valley and trees fill the background of the portrait. In a sort of contrast, the artist painted her classic white dress with incredible detail. It is a dress worn by typical French woman during that time period but hers is presented as slightly casual which is unique and could give us ideas to create a story for the portrait. What especially catches my eye is that I see her facial expression as one of simplicity and innocence. She is also holding a straw hat filled with other flowers. It is most likely about the girl having a person of interest in her life that she may want to have relations with. She is doing the ritual of "He loves me, he loves me not", petal by petal perhaps out loud or just by thought. Her skepticism of the situation could be represented by the expression on her face or the fact that she has several other flowers in case of failure. I believe that the portrait may have been a representation of the feelings of the artist, or the feelings of someone else in the artist's life. The only reason I say that is because it seems somewhat unlikely for a male artist to paint a woman showing her emotions involving relations if it is not reflecting his own. It makes me feel slightly hopeful for the girl, but mainly anxious about the situation. There are several questions that can be raised such as, what is the outcome of the ritual? Who is this person, and where is he? What will happen? The artist mainly used the painting of her facial expression to convey this message. I believe this is a great piece of art because of the attention to detail. Her porcelain skin, and perfectly sculpted face gives the young woman a sense of fragility. I have spent a lot of time thinking about this piece of work and I believe it gives me a perception of the idea of hope for the future, regardless of what you may think the outcome is. My interpretation were very close to the description given the museum and the audio guide. The ideas that the artist was trying to portray were very clear, and I recommend taking time to look at this painting next time you are at the Kimbell Museum in Fort Worth, Texas.