The Guitar Player (Greuze)

The Guitar Player or The Guitarist is a c. 1757 oil-on-canvas painting by the French artist Jean-Baptiste Greuze, produced during his stay in Rome.

It shows a young man tuning a guitar, with hunting accessories in the left background symbolising his being a bird-hunter (a common symbol for a seducer).

[1] The work was first exhibited at the Paris Salon of 1757 – a second autograph version is now in the Musée des Beaux-Arts in Nantes, the artist's hometown.

[2] Previously owned by JBL Boyer de Fonscolombe, in the mid-19th century it was purchased by Ksawery Branicki, who around 1900 took it to Poland, where it was housed at Rose Branicka's home on Nowy Świat in Warsaw and in Wilanów.

Two court hearings were held, one ordering the work to be returned and the second reversing that decision.