Jean-Baptiste Greuze began his career apprenticed to a Lyonnese portrait painter named Grandon.

In 1750, he moved to Paris, and entered the studio of Charles-Joseph Natoire. He was admitted into the Académie Royaleas an associate member in 1755, in the category of peintre de genre particulier, but did not gain full membership as an Academician until 1769.

His paintings of moralizing genre subjects, exhibited at the annual Salons, earned him the praise of the influential critic Denis Diderot. He was also a superb portraitist, exhibiting a number of portraits at the Salon throughout the 1760’s to considerable acclaim.