Louis-Léopold Boilly | |
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 Self-portraitc. 1805 | |
| Born | Louis-Léopold Boilly (1761-07-05)5 July 1761[1] La Bassée, France |
| Died | 4 January 1845(1845-01-04) (aged 83) Paris, France |
| Known for | Portrait painting,genre painting |
Louis-Léopold Boilly (French pronunciation:[lwileɔpɔl(d)bwɑji]ⓘ; 5 July 1761 – 4 January 1845) was a French painter and draftsman. A creator of popularportrait paintings, he also produced a vast number ofgenre paintings documenting French middle-class social life. His life and work spanned the eras ofmonarchical France, theFrench Revolution, theNapoleonic Empire, theBourbon Restoration and theJuly Monarchy. His 1800 paintingUn Trompe-l'œil introduced the termtrompe-l'œil ("trick the eye"), applied to the technique that uses realistic imagery to create theoptical illusion that the depicted objects exist in three dimensions, though the "unnamed" technique itself had existed in Greek and Roman times.
Boilly was born inLa Bassée in northern France,[2] the son of a local wood sculptor.[3] A self-taught painter, Boilly began his career at a very young age, producing his first works at the age of twelve or thirteen.[4] In 1774 he began to show his work to theAugustinians ofDouai who were evidently impressed: within three years, the bishop ofArras invited him to work and study in his diocese. While there, he produced a cascade of paintings – some three hundred small works of portraiture.[4] He received instruction intrompe-l'œil painting fromDominique Doncre [fr] (1743–1820)[5] before moving to Paris around 1787.[4]
At the height of therevolutionaryTerror in 1794, Boilly was condemned by theCommittee of Public Safety for the erotic undertones of his work.[6] This offence was remedied by Boilly's eleventh-hour production of the more patrioticTriumph ofMarat (now in theMusée des Beaux Arts,Lille) which saved him from serious penalties.[6]
Boilly was a popular and celebrated painter of his time. He was among the first artists to producelithographs, and became wealthy from the sale of his prints and paintings. He was awarded a medal by the ParisianSalon in 1804 for his workThe Arrival of a Mail-coach in the Courtyard of the Messageries. In 1833 he was decorated as achevalier of the nation's highest order, theLégion d'honneur.[4]
Boilly died in Paris on 4 January 1845.[4] His youngest son, Alphonse Boilly (1801–1867), was a professionalengraver who apprenticed inNew York withAsher Brown Durand.[7]
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 ofseventeenth-century Dutchgenre painters such asGabriël Metsu (1629–1667),Willem van Mieris andGerard 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.[8] In these works, his observation of contemporary customs is slightly sentimental and often humorous.[6]
Boilly was also well respected for his portraiture. By the end of his lifetime he had painted about 5,000 portraits, most of which were painted on canvases measuring 22 cm x 17 cm (8 5/8 in. x 6 5/8 in.).[8] He worked quickly, and boasted of requiring only two hours to complete a portrait.[8] He painted both middle class sitters and prominent contemporaries such asRobespierre.[6] Boilly's portraits strongly characterize the sitters as individuals, and are usually painted in a sober range of colors.[6]
Boilly used his great skill in depicting textures to produce numerous illusionistic works, including paintings ingrisaille that mimic prints.[6] In theSalon of 1800 he exhibited a painting that depicted layers of overlapping prints, drawings, and papers, covered by a sheet of broken glass in a wooden frame. His title for the work,Untrompe-l'œil ("a trick played on the eye"), marked the first use of that term to describe an illusionistic painting. Although art critics derided the painting as a stunt, it caused a popular sensation, andtrompe-l'œil entered the language as a name for an entire genre.[9]
His interest in caricature is most apparent in his suite of 98 lithographs titledRecueil de grimaces, published between 1823 and 1828.[10]
Boilly remains a highly regarded master ofoil 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 theKimbell Art Museum inFort Worth and theNational Gallery of Art inWashington (1995).[11] TheMusée des Beaux Arts inLille held a large-scale exhibition of Boilly's work during the winter season of 2011–2012.[12]
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![The Arrival of a Mail-coach in the Courtyard of the Messageries, 1803[4]](/mt/?noimg=&dark=on&url=https%3a%2f%2fen.wikipedia.org%2fwiki%2fFile%3aLouis-L%25C3%25A9opold_Boilly_002.jpg)
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Il a été élève du peintre de trompe-lœil Dominique Doncre.
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