_The Broken Pitcher_ (_La Cruche Cassée_).--No picture by Greuze is more widely known than this one. In one of Madame Roland's letters we are able to gain an idea of what was thought of the work at the time that it was painted. She has written: "It is a girl, naïve, rosy, charming, who has broken her pitcher. She holds it on her arm, near to the fountain where the accident has happened. Her eyes are not too wide open; her mouth is still partly open. She wonders what account to give of the misfortune, and does not know whether she is to blame or not. It would {55} not be possible to find anything more piquant or more pretty, and the only matter upon which one would be right to reproach Monsieur Greuze is that he has not made the little girl so sorry but what she would be ready to go to the fountain again." The derangement of the draperies, the incongruity of the lapful of flowers, the impossible way in which the pitcher is being carried, are not less characteristic of Greuze than the sweet face and the general charm and beauty of the painting. It is, indeed, one of Greuze's most winsome works, and its fascination will continue to captivate all but the most hypercritical. The original is in the Louvre, but Greuze painted the subject again with modifications, and there are a number of sketches and studies in existence. For instance, in the National Gallery of Scotland there is the preliminary sketch in oils for this work, and many prefer this sketch to some of Greuze's more finished pictures. _The Milkmaid_ (_La Laitière_).--Pretty as is this picture, it embodies a city man's sentimentality concerning the work of a farm. The hard labour of an actual milkmaid, and the peculiar conditions of her employment, are especially fatal to dainty hands, for instance. Thus, as the presentment of a milkmaid, the picture is far from any truth to Nature; but as an engaging girl-picture it is one of Greuze's most graceful and successful works. In 1821 it was sold for 7,210 francs, but in 1899, when {56} it was bequeathed to the Louvre by Baroness de Rothschild, its value was estimated at 600,000 francs. [Illustration: THE MILKMAID. (La Laitière.)] _Innocence_.--Many of the excellent qualities of Greuze's work appear in this attractive picture. It is true that the lamb is unfortunate, and, as Greuze's lambs usually are, is more reminiscent of the Lowther Arcade than of the meadow. Here also we see the head of a girl on the body of a woman; but the general effect of the picture is one of sweetness and tenderness, and the girl's expression is free from the affectations which have marred so many of the artist's paintings. This picture is one of the Wallace Collection.