Louis Léopold Boilly
Documented French middle-class social life
Louis-Léopold Boilly was a French painter and draftsman. A gifted creator of popular portrait paintings, he also produced a vast number of genre paintings vividly documenting French middle-class social life. 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 Austin friars of Douai who were evidently impressed: within three years, the bishop of Arras invited the young man to work and study in his bishopric. While there, he produced a cascade of paintings – some three hundred small works of portraiture. He received instruction in trompe l'oeil painting from Dominique Doncre (1743–1820) before moving to Paris around 1787. Boilly was a popular and celebrated painter of his time. He was among the first artists to produce lithographs, and became wealthy from the sale of his prints and paintings. He was awarded a medal by the Parisian Salon in 1804 for his work The Arrival of a Mail-coach in the Courtyard of the Messageries. In 1833 he was decorated as a chevalier of the nation's highest order, the Légion d'honneur.
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Artworks by this artist
- The Art Connoisseurs 1823-28
- The lesson of conjugal union
- Three Young Artists in a Studio 1820
- Brother Et Sœur
- Distribution de Vin Et De Comestibles Aux Champs-Elysées, À L’occasion De La Fête Du Roi. 1822
- Fear 1825
- L’Indiscret 1795
- Les Déménagements 1840
- Les Femmes se battent 1818
- Portrait of a man in a black suit
- Portrait of an elderly woman in a lace bonnet
- The Artist’s Wife In His Studio C. 1795-99
- The Beggar 1822
- The Marmot 1822
- The Comb Punch 1822
- The Indiscret 1795
- Les Conscrits de 1807 Défilant Devant La Porte Saint-Denis 1808
- Hired Hands 1822
- Portrait dit du capitaine Jules Raulin 1810
- Portrait of a man 1789