The Marriage Contract by Greuze

The Marriage Contract depicts the contractual exchange of a dowry between the father of the potential bride and the potential husband. Like many of works by Greuze the viewer find a large working class family in their humble pre-Revolution home. The group stands in a semi circular composition to allow the viewer access to every character in the narrative. At the center stand the impending bride and groom. They show no emotion toward each other their love is expressed, though minimally, in their linked arms. Both cast their gaze to the ground with a look of uncertainty for their future. Other members of the household listen intently to the words of the wise ageing father, his arms outstretched and powerful affixed on the daughter he is allowing to mature and become married. A man in the far right is dress in a black suit with his back toward the viewer and his face only seen in profile view. He too is anxiously engaged as the impending contract is completed. Greuze paints the children on the house in the background; each face is wrought with emotion. Some bored, some inquisitive and some oblivious to the contract being exchanged. These children help emphasize the passing of the generations and the naturalness of life’s changes that no one is ever really ready to accept. One little girl stands in the lower left corner, she hold up her apron which is full of grain to feed the chicken and chicks on the rough wooden floorboards below the feet of the bride and groom. One of the chicks has ventured away from the parent to find a bowl of water to quench its thirst. With this simple gesture Greuze reinforces the narrative of the scene between the father and daughter. Though the authoritative figure of bother the father and the chicken are physically close at hand the possibility for great change has become a realization in the minds of the youth.