The Blind Man Deceived tells a dark story. About an old man who lost his sight. In the painting it seems as if he fell to his knees with a younger woman to his side and he’s holding her with his left hand while she in return is holding what appears to be a serving boy emerging from the cellar, who is so alarmed that he spills the pitcher of beer he was sent to get. The terrified young man staggers forward with his mouth open, the young woman watches the old man with an amused gaze, and finally, the main character proposes, with his unattractive and greyish face, that had he but eyes to see, he would not take kindly to the goings-on so painfully obvious to the viewer. The old man-whether aged husband or father-is tricked, and the youth led astray by the spotlight schemer in the middle. Greuze depicts the woman as a basic sexual aggressor and cheat, a predictive early idea for which his own wedded life would deliver frightening satisfaction.
The Sleeping Schoolboy Paintings depicts the innocents and the realism of a child learning until falling asleep. The sleeping school boy may be one of Greuze’s most famous paintings because of the how real he makes the painting look, and how well he shows the image of an everyday