GRIMOU, Alexis
(b. 1678, Argenteuil, d. 1733, Paris)

Portrait of a Young Boy

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Oil on canvas, 44 x 35 cm
Private collection

This portrait sketch of a young boy, head and shoulders, with a white collar is typical of Grimou's artistic output. A pupil of Jean-François de Troy, Grimou took from his master a warm palette and added to it an audacity of handling which places him squarely in the 18th century. Often intimate in nature and executed with brushstrokes of a great spontaneity, works like the present clearly provoked the fantasy portraits later sketched by Jean-Honoré Fragonard who, moreover, painted pastiches in Grimou's manner. Grimou's influence can also be discerned in the work of Jean-Baptiste Greuze. Grimou himself sought inspiration from the Dutch Golden Age, with a debt to Rembrandt seen here in the beautifully rendered chiaroscuro.