With in excess of 190 artworks on display, including paintings, drawings and lithographs, drawn from the most prestigious collections worldwide, the current exhibition of Boilly's work at the Palais des Beaux Arts de Lille in northern France offers a unique opportunity to explore the fantastic scope of this versatile and extremely prolific artist's work. The exhibition, staged to commemorate the 250th anniversary of his birth in La Basée (approx. 25 km southwest of Lille) in 1761, is arranged in seven thematic sections and includes paintings, drawings, lithographs, miniatures and pieces of furniture.
A selection of small portraits in the entrance room of the exhibition.
The portraits above, from the Marmottan-Monet and Carnavalet museums, are the first thing you encounter when you enter the exhibition; each one measures around 22cm tall and is said to have taken a mere two hours to paint. According to the catalogue that accompanies the exhibition (which is in French and is beautifully produced), the Boilly sale catalogue of 1829 stated that 4,500 of these small size portraits were painted by the artist.
Portrait of Boilly as a Sans-culotte, oil on panel, 1793.
Boilly painted numerous self-portraits throughout his life; they chart not just the development of his style but also the changes in fashion and in Boilly's personal appearance as he grew older. The one above, which is one of my favourites, was originally thought to have been a portrait of the artist's friend Chenard. It shows Boilly, who was 32 at the time, in a Revolutionary costume, wearing a Phrygian Liberty cap.
Boilly's portraits played so great a part in establishing his reputation, and he painted so many of them, that some people see him as nothing more than a portrait painter. But Boilly was so much more.
Young Woman at a Window, oil on canvas, 1799 or later.
Boilly produced numerous genre scenes. He was one of the most original artists of the 19th century and undoubtedly the most significant painter of daily life in Revolutionary and Napoleonic France. Boilly chose not to paint dramatic depictions of the Revolution itself; instead he presents us with a record of its far reaching, long lasting and sometimes chaotic effects upon the general population; we see historic events, but we see them through the eyes of the people of Paris. As the gallery guide points out, there was no place for the 'official hero' in Boilly's work; his heroes were the everyday men and women of France, who were continually trying to come to terms with the changes taking place all around them.
The Entrance of the Ambigu-Comique Theatre for a Free Performance, oil on canvas, 1819.
Boilly was a rather mischievous commentator. In the painting above, men and women are shoving each other this way and that, desperate to get inside the Ambigu-Comique Theatre, which was situated at 74 Boulevard du Temple, for a free performance of the play The Maccabees. At this point in Boilly's career, his interest in depicting life on the streets of Paris had moved away from a simple desire to convey an accurate picture of the diversity of Parisian life; now he sought to depict the animalistic nature of human behaviour. The same uncontrolled, frenzied desire that we see in the scene outside the Ambigu-Comique is also visible in that of the distribution of wine and food on the Champs-Élysées (see below).
The Distribution of Wine and Food on the Champs-Élysées, oil on canvas, 1822.
The distribution of food and beverages to the public to mark special occasions was a tradition of the Ancien Régime. In 1806, the practise was restored by Napoleon when the 15th August became Saint Napoleon's Day. In the above scene of chaotic disorder, men and women are climbing all over each other to get their hands on something to drink. The central group is one great tangle of grasping limbs, as men clamber onto each other's backs to grab for the wine. Even the dogs in the foreground are fighting; neither will let go of a hat that's fallen off someone's head in the mad rush.
You may already be aware of Boilly's portraits and genre paintings, but you may not be aware that he was also a fabulous caricaturist, extremely accomplished lithographer and wonderful painter of trompe l'oeil. The final part of the exhibition is devoted to exploring his talents in these areas.
Physiognomy is the assessment of an individual's personality by the examination of his physical appearance, especially of his facial features; the curve of a brow, the length of a nose, or the shape of a mouth can, apparently, disclose everything we need to know about a person's character. Boilly appears to have explored every facial type and every expression the human face is capable of making in his examination of the appearance of human characteristics and emotion.
Preparatory drawing for the Trompe l'oeil tabletop shown below.
The trompe l'oeil painting for the pedestal table shown below is amazingly realistic. There are coins scattered on the left, a couple of small metallic pins, two small round portraits (the one on the right representing the painter himself), a slip of paper displaying the artist's own address - the paper is partly magnified by the circle of glass placed on top of it - and there are even droplets of glue here and there, which we are meant to believe were dropped onto the table in error. Boilly loved to work with reflective surfaces: glass, metal, water droplets, etc. His attention to detail is astounding; he possessed the skill of the finest miniaturist and lavished attention on the most minute of details.
Trompe l'oeil with coins, on the surface of a pedestal table, 1808-1814.
Trompe l'oeil tabletop, oil on rosewood.
Boilly deserves to be better known; he deserves to be better regarded. He was a painter of astounding skill and he possessed a wonderful sense of humour. But don't take my word for it; go and see for yourself. The exhibition is on until the 6th February, so you still have a month to get yourself over to Lille and explore this remarkable artist's work.
Exhibition details:
Palais des Beaux Arts de Lille,
Place de la République,
59000 Lille, France.
Web site: http://www.pba-lille.fr
