Louis-Léopold Boilly

piece by Boilly, similar to his etymological Un trompe-l'œil'' of 1800 '', 1794 Boilly was born in La Bassée in northern France, the son of a local wood sculptor. A self-taught painter, Boilly began his career at a very young age, producing his first works at the age of twelve or thirteen. In 1774 he began to show his work to the Augustinians of Douai who were evidently impressed: within three years, the bishop of Arras invited him to work and study in his diocese. While there, he produced a cascade of paintings – some three hundred small works of portraiture. before moving to Paris around 1787. ==Style and works==

with hand coloring Boilly's early works showed a preference for amorous and moralising subjects. ''The Suitor's Gift'' is comparable to much of his work in the 1790s. His small-scale paintings with carefully mannered colouring and precise detailing recalled the work of seventeenth-century Dutch genre painters such as Gabriël 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 serve as social chronicles of the urban middle class. In these works, his observation of contemporary customs is slightly sentimental and often humorous. Boilly's portraits strongly characterize the sitters as individuals, and are usually painted in a sober range of colors. His interest in caricature is most apparent in his suite of 98 lithographs titled Recueil de grimaces, published between 1823 and 1828. Boilly remains a highly regarded master of oil painting. A major exhibition of his work, The Art of Louis-Léopold Boilly: Modern Life in Napoleonic France, travelled to the United States where it was shown at both the Kimbell Art Museum in Fort Worth and the National Gallery of Art in Washington (1995). The Musée des Beaux Arts in Lille held a large-scale exhibition of Boilly's work during the winter season of 2011–2012. ==Gallery==

File:Various objects.jpg|Various Objects (c.1785), Oil on canvas, 28 1/2 x 23 3/4 in. (72.4 x 60.3 cm), Clark Art Institute File:Portrait of La Fayette by Louis-Léopold Boilly, 1788.jpg|Portrait of the Marquis de Lafayette, 1788 File:Lille PBA Boilly autoportrait.jpg|Self-portrait 1793 File:Boilly La Toilette intime ou la Rose effeuillée.jpg|La Toilette intime File:Lille PBA Boilly robespierre.jpg|Portrait of Robespierre, 1791 File:Boilly - Suitor.jpg|''The Suitor's Gift'', , Royal Scottish Academy File:Louis Léopold Boilly - Portrait of Jan Anthony d'Averhoult (1756-1792) - Google Art Project.jpg|''Portrait of Jan Anthony d'Averhoult'', 1792, Centraal Museum File:Sans-culotte.jpg|Simon Chenard as a Sans-Culotte, 1792 File:Portrait of a Woman MET DP-1419-01.jpg|Portrait of a Woman, Metropolitan Museum of Art File:Louis-Léopold Boilly (French - Three Young Artists in a Studio - Google Art Project.jpg|Three Young Artists in a Studio File:Paris art deco boilly houdon.jpg|The Studio of Jean-Antoine Houdon, 1804 File:Charles-Louis Havas by Boilly.png|Portrait of Charles-Louis Havas File:Louis Léopold Boilly - The Young Harpist - 1977.152 - Yale University Art Gallery.jpg|Young Harpist, c. 1804–1806 File:Boilly L'effet du mélodrame.jpg|''L'effet du mélodrame'', 1830 File:L-L Boilly Une loge.jpg|Une loge, 1830 File:Louis-Léopold BOILLY, Un trompe-l'oeil avec un chat et une bûche de bois à travers une toile.jpg|''Trompe-l'œil with a cat and a wooden log through a canvas, fish hanging from the stretcher'' File:"Deux jeunes amies qui s'embrassent" de L.L. Boilly (musée Cognacq-Jay, Paris) (51992741281).jpg|Two Young Women Kissing, 1789-1793 File:Louis Léopold Boilly - Woman Showing Her Portrait - 32.2019.10 - Dallas Museum of Art.jpg|Woman Showing Her Portrait, 1790 File:The Sorrows of Love (painting).png|The Sorrows of Love, 1790 File:Boilly, Louis Léopold - Le Doux Réveil - J 7 - Musée Cognacq-JayFXD.jpg|Le Doux Réveil, 1795 File:The Artist's wife.jpg|''The Artist's Wife in His Studio'' (c.1795–99), Oil on canvas, 16 x 12 15/16 in. (40.6 x 32.9 cm), Clark Art Institute File:Boilly incroyable parade.jpg|Incroyable parade, 1797 File:Réunion d'artistes dans l'atelier d'Isabey - Louis-Léopold Boilly - Musée du Louvre Peintures RF 1290bis.jpg|''Meeting of Artists in Isabey's Studio'', 1798 File:Boieldieu.jpg|Portrait of François-Adrien Boieldieu, 1800 Image:Louis-Léopold Boilly 002.jpg|The Arrival of a Stagecoach in the Courtyard of the Messageries, 1803 File:Madame Saint-Ange Chevrier (Louis-Léopold Boilly) - Nationalmuseum - 177754.tif|Madame Saint-Ange Chevrier, 1807, Nationalmuseum File:Les Papillons).jpg|Les Papillons File:The Card Sharp on the Boulevard A16552.jpg|The Card Sharp on the Boulevard, 1806 File:Louis-Léopold Boilly - Game of Billiards - WGA02350FXD.jpg|A Game of Billiards, 1807 File:Louis-Léopold Boilly - The Reading of the Bulletin of the Grand... - 74-1989 - Saint Louis Art Museum.jpg|The Reading of the Bulletin of the Grande Armée, 1807 File:Napoléon remet la Légion d'Honneur à Pierre Cartellier 1808.jpg|Napoleon Awarding the Legion of Honour to Pierre Cartellier, 1808 File:Léopold Boilly Les conscrits de 1807 défilant devant la porte Saint-Denis.jpg|Departure of the Conscripts, 1808 File:Louis-Léopold Boilly, The Public Viewing David’s "Coronation" at the Louvre, 1810.jpg|''The Public Viewing David's 'Coronation' at the Louvre'', 1810 File:Louis-Léopold Boilly - The Geography Lesson (Portrait of Monsieur Gaudry and His Daughter) - Google Art Project.jpg|The Geography Lesson, 1812 File:Louis-Léopold Boilly - The Movings - 1982.494 - Art Institute of Chicago.jpg|Moving Day, 1822 File:Louis Léopold Boilly - Distribution de vin et de comestibles aux Champs-Elysées, à l'occasion de la fête du roi - P1582 - Musée Carnavalet.jpg|Distribution of Wine and Food on the Champs-Elysées, 1822 File:Jeux de dames au café Lamblin au Palais-Royal.jpg|Checkers at the Lamblin Café in the Palais-Royal, 1824 File:Louis-Léopold Boilly - The Barrel Game.jpg|The Barrel Game, 1828 File:Louis-Léopold Boilly - The Poor Cat.jpg|The Poor Cat, 1832 File:Louis-Léopold Boilly - Carnival Scene.jpg|A Carnival Scene, 1832 ==References==