Broken Eggs (Metropolitan Museum of Art)

Broken Eggs is a painting executed in 1756 by French artist Jean-Baptiste Greuze. Done in oil on canvas, the painting depicts an old woman rebuking a young man who is responsible for having broken the eggs in the basket of a servant girl who sits dejectedly on the floor. It is the first of many paintings by Greuze in which he uses broken objects as a metaphor for the loss of a young girl's virginity.[1] Greuze exhibited the work in the Salon of 1757 with an explanatory title: Une Mère grondant un jeune Homme pour avoir renversé un Panier d’Oeufs que sa Servante apportoit du Marché. Un Enfant tente de raccomoder un oeuf cassé ("A mother scolding a young man for having overturned a basket of eggs that her servant brought from the market. A child attempts to repair a broken egg").[2]

Broken Eggs
ArtistJean-Baptiste Greuze
Year1756
MediumOil on canvas
Dimensions73 cm × 94 cm (29 in × 37 in)
LocationMetropolitan Museum of Art, New York City

It is now in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, which acquired it in 1920.[2]

References
  1. Greuze J.-B., Thompson J. M. & Metropolitan Museum of Art. (1990). Jean-Baptiste Greuze. Metropolitan Museum of Art. pp. 13–14. OCLC 249060343.
  2. "Broken Eggs". www.metmuseum.org. Archived from the original on 2016-03-05. Retrieved 2018-10-18.
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