Second Scene of Burglars: The Burglars Arrested

1810

The black, white, and gray tones of this painting—composed in a style called grisaille—produce the illusion of an engraving. The work is one of a pair: the first scene depicts the burglary of a bourgeois home in progress, while this painting shows the second scene—the discovery of the crime. The dramatic story, told through the figures’ theatrical gestures and expressions, inspired a play based on the two compositions.

Medium	oil on canvas
Dimensions	Overall: 10 7/8 x 13 7/8 in. (27.6 x 35.2 cm)
Object Number	2007.10
Acquisition	Acquired by the Clark, 2007
Status	On View

Image Caption

Louis Léopold Boilly, Second Scene of Burglars: The Burglars Arrested, 1810, oil on canvas. Clark Art Institute, Acquired by the Clark, 2007.10

Select Bibliography

Scottez-De Wambrechies, Annie and Florence Raymond. Boilly (1761–1845). Exhibition catalogue. Paris: Éditions Nicolas Chaudun; Lille: Palais des Beaux-Arts, 2011. Lees, Sarah, ed. Nineteenth-Century European Paintings at the Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute. Williamstown, MA: Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute; New Haven and London: distributed by Yale University Press, 2012. Harrisse, Henry. L.-L. Boilly, peintre, dessinateur, et lithographe; sa vie et son oeuvre, 17611845. Paris: Société de propagation des livres d'art, 1898. Marmottan, Paul. La peintre Louis Boilly (17611845). Paris: H. Gateau, 1913. Mabille de Poncheville, André. Boilly. Les maîtres de l'art. Paris: Éditions Plon, 1931. Hallam, John Stephen. The Genre Works of Louis-Leopold Boilly. Ph.D. diss., University of Washington, 1979.

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Provenance

The artist (his sale, Paris, 13–14 Apr. 1829, no. 37, as one of Deux scènes de voleurs); Baron Deurbroucq (his sale, Drouot, Paris, 15 Feb. 1878, no. 3, as one of two Scènes de voleurs); Félix Gillet, Chateauroux (by 1898–d. before 1913, his sale, Drouot, Paris, 28 Feb. 1919, no. 7, as Troisième Scène de voleurs [sic], sold to Lepoutre); Lepoutre (from 1919); private collection; sale, Drouot, Paris, 28 Mar. 2007, no. 35, as ; [Étienne Bréton Fine Art, Paris, sold to the Clark, 28 Aug. 2007]; Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute, 2007.