.jpg?w=1)
.jpg?w=1)
.jpg?w=1)
.jpg?w=1)
Lot Essay
Boilly was one of the finest and most successful portrait painters in France from the final years of the Ancien Régime until the middle of the 19th century. His highly finished technique rivalled the greatest Dutch masters of the 17th century and he worked at lightning speed, gifts that made him a valuable and sought-after chronicler of each political age. Boilly is believed to have painted as many as 4000 postcard-sized, completing each in a single sitting.
Born in 1761 in La Bassée, a small town southwest of Lille, Boilly is said to have begun his career as a portrait painter sometime between 1775 and 1778 in the nearby town of Douai, before moving to Paris in 1785. He first exhibited publicly at the 1788 Exposition de la Jeunesse. After access to the official Salon was opened to all in 1791, Boilly showed portraits and genre scenes in nearly every Paris Salon through 1833. It was at the Salon of 1795 that he first showed the public his little portraits, exhibiting two of them, each measuring 22 x 16 cm. At the Salon of 1800, under entry number 39, the livret announced 'Several portraits under the same number, each done in one sitting of two hours.' He worked quickly and inexpensively – we know from Stendhal that Boilly charged only 120 francs per portrait – executing them on prepared canvases acquired from a color merchant; he applied the brush directly, without relying on preparatory drawings, attesting to his confidence and enormous skill. Given the rapidity with which they were made, it is remarkable how vividly Boilly was able to capture a natural and sincere expression, and recreate it with disconcerting facility.
The identities of many of the sitters remain unknown, but he portrayed a unique and dazzling cross-section of French society of his era: artists, doctors, military officials, members of the nobility, the government and the bourgeoisie. An entire family might pose for him. For example, no fewer than seven portraits of the Arnault family are known: Antoine-Vincent Arnault, writer and Secretary of the French Academy; his two children, Louis and Gabrielle; his mother, Madame Nicolas-Vincent Arnault; Antoine-Vincent’s brother; his sister-in-law; as well as Mr. Hubert, his cousin. It is not unusual that, to this day, many of Boilly’s portraits are still in the possession of the sitter’s descendants, often in the frames which the artist put on them, and still on their original stretchers.
Born in 1761 in La Bassée, a small town southwest of Lille, Boilly is said to have begun his career as a portrait painter sometime between 1775 and 1778 in the nearby town of Douai, before moving to Paris in 1785. He first exhibited publicly at the 1788 Exposition de la Jeunesse. After access to the official Salon was opened to all in 1791, Boilly showed portraits and genre scenes in nearly every Paris Salon through 1833. It was at the Salon of 1795 that he first showed the public his little portraits, exhibiting two of them, each measuring 22 x 16 cm. At the Salon of 1800, under entry number 39, the livret announced 'Several portraits under the same number, each done in one sitting of two hours.' He worked quickly and inexpensively – we know from Stendhal that Boilly charged only 120 francs per portrait – executing them on prepared canvases acquired from a color merchant; he applied the brush directly, without relying on preparatory drawings, attesting to his confidence and enormous skill. Given the rapidity with which they were made, it is remarkable how vividly Boilly was able to capture a natural and sincere expression, and recreate it with disconcerting facility.
The identities of many of the sitters remain unknown, but he portrayed a unique and dazzling cross-section of French society of his era: artists, doctors, military officials, members of the nobility, the government and the bourgeoisie. An entire family might pose for him. For example, no fewer than seven portraits of the Arnault family are known: Antoine-Vincent Arnault, writer and Secretary of the French Academy; his two children, Louis and Gabrielle; his mother, Madame Nicolas-Vincent Arnault; Antoine-Vincent’s brother; his sister-in-law; as well as Mr. Hubert, his cousin. It is not unusual that, to this day, many of Boilly’s portraits are still in the possession of the sitter’s descendants, often in the frames which the artist put on them, and still on their original stretchers.