Figure Drawing: Louis-Léopold Boilly

Saturday, October 2, 2010

Louis-Léopold Boilly

Figure drawing attributed to Louis-Léopold Boilly is for sale on Ebay.

Houdon's Studio by Louis-Léopold Boilly

From the Ebay seller's description: Louis-Léopold Boilly

Boilly was born in Douai in northern France but moved to Arras at the age of seventeen to receive instruction in [trompe l'oeil] painting from Dominique Doncre (1743-1820). Seven years later Boilly moved to Paris where he exhibited in the Salon between 1791 and 1824 - receiving a gold medal in 1804.

In 1794, Boilly was condemned by the Comité de Salut Public, at the height of Terror, for the erotic undertones of his work. This offense was remedied by an eleventh-hour discovery in his home of the more patriotic Triumph of Marat (Musée des Beaux Arts, Lille) which saved him from serious penalties. Works

Boilly's early works tended towards a preference for amorous and moralising subjects. The Suitor's Gift is comparable to much of his work in the 1790's. His small-scale paintings with carefully mannered colouring and precise detailing recalled the work of Dutch seventeenth-century genre painters such as Gabriel Metsu (1629-1667), Willem van Mieris and Gerard ter Borch (1617-1681), of whose work Boilly owned an important collection. After 1794, Boilly began to produce far more crowded compositions that which serve as social chronicals. Boilly was also well respected for his portraiture, producing many portraits of the middle classes and other famous contemporaries.