Nov
20
1:01 AM01:01
‘Girl with a dead canary’ (1745) by Jean-Baptiste Greuze, Scottish National Gallery, Edinburgh
The yellow pigment has faded over time, leaving a white canary and blue foliage, but the subject of this painting – a young girl’s sadness at her first confrontation with death – is as clear to us as it was to viewers nearly 300 years ago …