Girl with Birds

Circle of Jean-Baptiste Greuze

National Gallery of Art

Shown from the waist up, a pale-skinned young girl sits next to a table with two small brown birds in this vertical, oval-shaped portrait. The girl’s body is angled to our right, and she looks down her cheeks at the birds. Her heavy lids are pale purple, and she has a delicate nose, full, red lips, and a round chin. Her brown hair is parted down the middle and pulled back under a white band. Her white gown is loose over her chest, exposing both round breasts and pale nipples. She holds the cloth to each side of her left breast, farther from us. A bird at the edge of the table leans forward toward the girl. The second bird pokes its head out of a box-like cage and looks up, beak open. The table has a mauve-purple top over a carved gold apron and leg. The girl’s chair has a nut-shaped finial on one rail, and the background is dark gray.