''The Village Bride'' () is a painting by the French artist Jean-Baptiste Greuze, created in 1761. It is now in the

Louvre The Louvre ( ), or the Louvre Museum ( ), is the world's most-visited museum, and an historic landmark in Paris, France. It is the home of some of the best-known works of art, including the ''Mona Lisa'' and the ''Venus de Milo''. A central l ...

, in

Paris Paris () is the capital and most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), making it the 30th most densely populated city in the world in 2020. S ...

. The work was first exhibited at the 1761 Salon, where it was unanimously praised by the critics, notably by

Diderot Denis Diderot (; ; 5 October 171331 July 1784) was a French philosopher, art critic, and writer, best known for serving as co-founder, chief editor, and contributor to the ''Encyclopédie'' along with Jean le Rond d'Alembert. He was a prominen ...

. It was the first example of the 'moral painting' genre, to which Greuze often returned. It was part of a series of 6 paintings.

Caroline de Valory Caroline de Valory, née D'Ette (born 1790) was a French painter and engraver. She was a pupil of Jean-Baptiste Greuze and married the writer Count Henri de Valory, known for his documentation of the order of St. John (he was a knight of the o ...

, a former pupil of Greuze, collaborated with the writer Alexandre Louis Bertrand Robineau to produce ''L'Accordée de Village'', a one-act comedy based on the paintings.

Bibliography

*Denis Diderot, ''Salon de 1765'', Hermann, Paris, 1984 *Denis Diderot, ''Héros et martyrs'', Hermann, Paris, 1995 *Denis Diderot, ''Essais sur la peinture, Salons de 1759, 1761, 1763'', Hermann, Paris, 2007 *Edgar Munhall, ''Jean-Baptiste Greuze 1728–1805'', catalogue of an exhibition at the Wadsworth Atheneum, Hartford, 1977 {{DEFAULTSORT:Village Bride, The Paintings in the Louvre by French artists 1761 paintings Paintings by Jean-Baptiste Greuze Genre paintings