Jean-Baptiste Greuze (1725-1805) is Tournus's most famous son, and gets pride of place here in the square in front of the mairie. His Père de famille lisant la Bible à ses enfants met with great success in 1755. He painted Les Œufs cassés (1756) shortly after he began a few years study in Rome. One of his most famous works, La Malédiction paternelle, is a diptych: Le Fils ingrat and Le Fils puni: (lit. 'The Ungrateful Son' and 'The Punished Son'): Greuze was interested in making emotional and moral messages.
Greuze's birthplace still exists (as you'd perhaps expect in this timeless place), and is graced by an ageing plaque.
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