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Lot Essay
This is one of five Parisian subjects which Boys used to experiment with soft ground etching in the early 1830s (J. Roundell, Thomas Shotter Boys, London, 1974, p. 39). The prints were never published, and Boys went on to use lithography extensively to reproduce his work, but preparatory drawings on tracing paper exist for the project. The sheet relating to the present work is in the Musee Carnavalet (D.167).
In 1823, after his apprenticeship to the London engraver George Cooke (1781-1834), Boys moved to Paris where he worked alongside Richard Parkes Bonington (1800-1828), under whose encouragement he turned his attention to watercolour painting. While his earliest works in watercolour are often copies after other artists, in the late 1820s his style became increasingly original, particularly following Bonington’s death in 1828. Between 1831 and 1837 he executed hundreds of sketches and finished watercolours of Paris, and exhibited several at the Salon each year. The present work shows the architectural accuracy and attention to detail which Boys developed in the years immediately following Bonington's death, whilst the bold colour shows the latter's ongoing influence.
Despite its Right Bank location, Café Momus was a meeting point for young, liberal Parisians in the early 19th Century. Celebrated by Henri Murger in his 1840s Scènes de la vie de bohème, it was also the setting for Act Two of Puccini’s 1893-5 opera La Bohème, which was based on that book.
In 1823, after his apprenticeship to the London engraver George Cooke (1781-1834), Boys moved to Paris where he worked alongside Richard Parkes Bonington (1800-1828), under whose encouragement he turned his attention to watercolour painting. While his earliest works in watercolour are often copies after other artists, in the late 1820s his style became increasingly original, particularly following Bonington’s death in 1828. Between 1831 and 1837 he executed hundreds of sketches and finished watercolours of Paris, and exhibited several at the Salon each year. The present work shows the architectural accuracy and attention to detail which Boys developed in the years immediately following Bonington's death, whilst the bold colour shows the latter's ongoing influence.
Despite its Right Bank location, Café Momus was a meeting point for young, liberal Parisians in the early 19th Century. Celebrated by Henri Murger in his 1840s Scènes de la vie de bohème, it was also the setting for Act Two of Puccini’s 1893-5 opera La Bohème, which was based on that book.