Item number: X46

Year: AD 1839-1901

Material: Silver

Size: 53.5 x 46 x 6 mm

Weight: 24.8 g

Provenance: Marc Aurel Antiquitäten & Wohnen 2025

This is a Victorian oval silver brooch engraved with La Laitière (“The Milkmaid”), after the painting by Jean-Baptiste Greuze. The front is finely worked with a detailed line engraving depicting a young milkmaid leaning beside a cow, her head slightly inclined and her expression reflective. The composition is framed within a plain raised border. Along the lower edge appears the inscription “J. B. Greuze La Laitière.” The reverse is plain, fitted with a simple horizontal pin and clasp, and shows light surface wear consistent with age and use.

The subject derives from a painting by Jean-Baptiste Greuze (1725–1805), a French painter known for sentimental genre scenes that emphasised domestic virtue and rural simplicity. Born in Tournus and later active in Paris, Greuze trained in Lyons and entered the Royal Academy in the mid-eighteenth century. He gained considerable success in the 1760s with carefully staged scenes of peasant life, which appealed strongly to contemporary taste for moralising subjects and natural feeling. Although admitted to the Academy as a genre painter in 1769, he aspired to the higher rank of history painter and, dissatisfied with his reception, withdrew from exhibiting at the official Salons. By that time, however, his reputation was secure.

Greuze’s work coincided with the growing influence of middle-class values and Enlightenment thought. His paintings were widely reproduced in engraved form, allowing his compositions to circulate beyond elite collectors. These engravings were collected, framed, and adapted for decorative and personal objects. The present brooch represents such a translation from painting to print and from print to wearable form. It reflects the nineteenth-century revival of eighteenth-century taste and the continued popularity of Greuze’s imagery, particularly scenes that conveyed modesty, virtue and pastoral sentiment.

As a piece of jewellery, the brooch combines fine engraving with restrained Victorian design. It would have been worn as an ornamental statement, signalling both cultural awareness and appreciation of celebrated European art.

物件編號: X46

年代: 公元 1839-1901 年

材質: 銀

尺寸: 53.5 x 46 x 6 mm

重量: 24.8 g

來源: 馬可·奧勒留 古董和家居裝飾 2025

這是一件維多利亞時期的橢圓形銀質胸針，正面刻有《擠奶女》（La Laitière）圖像，取材自尚-巴蒂斯特・格魯茲（Jean-Baptiste Greuze）的畫作。正面以精細線刻呈現一名年輕擠奶女倚靠乳牛而立的形象，人物神情沉靜，構圖完整而均衡。外圍為素面凸起邊框，下緣刻有「J. B. Greuze La Laitière」字樣。背面為素面設計，附水平式別針與扣件，可見與年代相符的自然磨損痕跡。

此圖像源自 Jean-Baptiste Greuze（1725–1805）之作品。格魯茲為十八世紀法國重要的風俗畫家，生於圖爾努，後於巴黎發展藝術事業。他早年於里昂學習繪畫，約於1750年前後進入皇家美術學院，並以描繪鄉村生活與家庭倫理場景而成名。其作品強調質樸生活與道德情感，在1760年代獲得廣泛聲譽。1769年，他以風俗畫家身分獲准加入學院，但因未能以歷史畫家身分獲得更高地位而心生不滿，遂停止參與官方沙龍展覽。儘管如此，其藝術地位當時已然穩固。

格魯茲的作品興起於啟蒙時代與中產階級價值逐漸抬頭的背景之下。他所塑造的自然情感與道德純樸形象，深受評論家與公眾喜愛，其畫作被大量製成版畫流通於各階層社會。這些版畫除供收藏與裝飾之外，亦常被轉化為各類裝飾藝術與個人配飾。本件胸針即為將繪畫構圖轉譯為雕刻圖像，再轉化為可佩戴飾品的實例，反映十九世紀對十八世紀藝術風格的再度關注與延續。

作為首飾，此胸針兼具精細雕刻工藝與維多利亞時期簡潔端正的設計風格。其不僅為裝飾之用，亦體現佩戴者對歐洲藝術傳統與經典題材的欣賞與認同。