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Louis Léopold Boilly
French, 1761–1845
Various Objects
c. 1785
This work is among Boilly’s earliest efforts in trompe l’oeil painting—the artist is thought to have invented the term, which means to “fool the eye.” The letters, some addressed to a Monsieur and Madame Dandré, and the sprig of pansies (pensées in French—a word that also means “thoughts”) may indicate that the painting was dedicated to the couple. Perhaps these seemingly unrelated objects held special significance for them.
Medium
oil on canvas
Dimensions
28 1/2 x 23 3/4 in. (72.4 x 60.3 cm)
Frame: 32 5/8 x 27 7/8 x 2 1/2 in. (82.9 x 70.8 x 6.4 cm)
Object Number
1981.1
Acquisition
Acquired by the Clark, 1981
Status
On View
Image Caption
Louis Léopold Boilly, Various Objects, c. 1785, oil on canvas. Clark Art Institute, Acquired by the Clark, 1981.1
Select Bibliography
Miami Art Museum. Reflex: A Vik Muniz Primer. Exhibition catalogue. New York: Aperture Foundation, 2005.
Ludig, Sandra G. Between the Lines: Ladies and Letters at the Clark. Exhibition catalogue. Williamstown, MA: Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute, 1982.
Faré, Michel. La nature morete in France: son histoire et Son évolution du XVIIe au XXe siècle. Peintres et sculpteurs d'hier et d'aujourd'hui 60. Geneva: Pierre Cailler, 1962.
Bénézit, Emmanuel. Dictionnaire critique et documentaire des peintres, sculpteurs, dessinateurs et graveurs de tous les temps et de tous les pays. Paris: Librairie Gründ, 1976.
Faré, Michel and Fabrice. La vie silencieuse en France: La nature morte au XVIIIe siècle. Fribourg: Office du Livre, 1976.
Hallam, John Stephen. The Genre Works of Louis-Leopold Boilly. Ph.D. diss., University of Washington, 1979.
Anonymous. "La Chronique des Arts: Principales acquisitions des musées en 1981." Gazette des Beaux-Arts 99, no. 1358 (supplement, March 1982).
Sciences, letters column (Sept./Oct. 1992).
Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute. List of Paintings in the Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute. Williamstown, MA: Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute, 1984.
Siegfried, Susan L. "Boilly and the Frame-Up of 'Trompe l'oeil'." Oxford Art Journal 15, no. 2 (1992): 27-37.
Kern, Steven, ed. List of Paintings in the Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute. Williamstown, MA: Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute, 1992.
Siegfried, Susan L. The Art of Louis-Léopold Boilly: Modern Life in Napoleonic France. Exhibition catalogue. New Haven: Yale University Press in association with Kimbell Art Museum and National Gallery of Art, 1995.
Chastel, André. Le temps de l'éloquence, 1775-1825. Vol. 4, L'Art Français. Paris: Flammarion, 1996.
Held, Julius S. "Old Masters in the Clark Collection, Part I: Paintings." The Magazine Antiques 62, no. 4 (October 1997): 504–9.
Lanzi, Elisa. Introduction to Vocabularies: Enhancing Access to Cultural Heritage Information. Los Angeles: The Getty Information Institute, 1998.
Harrisse, Henry. L.-L. Boilly, peintre, dessinateur, et lithographe; sa vie et son oeuvre, 17611845. Paris: Société de propagation des livres d'art, 1898.
Ebert-Schifferer, Sybille. Deceptions and Illusions: Five Centuries of Trompe L'Oeil in Europe and America. Exhibition catalogue. Washington, DC: National Gallery of Art; London: Lund Humphries: 2002.
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.
Eliel, Carol S. Form and Content in the Genre Works of Louis-Léopold Boilly. Ph.D. diss., Institute of Fine Arts, New York University, 1985.
Bréton, Étienne and Pascal Zuber. "Un trompe l'oeil de Louis-Léopold Boilly au musée du Louvre." Revue des Musées de France: Revue du Louvre (February 2007): 618.
Possibly Jules Lenglart, Lille;¹ Sacha Guitry, Paris (d. 1957); sale, Palais Galliera, Paris, 28 Nov. 1972, no. 8, ill.; private collection, Lille (in 1976); [Hazlitt, Gooden & Fox, London, sold to the Clark, 15 Jan. 1981]; Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute, 1981.
1. Henry Harrisse (L. L. Boilly, peintre, dessinateur, et lithographe: Sa vie et son oeuvre, 1761–1845, 1898, p. 138) lists the work in the collection of “M. Langlart” in Lille. Jules Lenglart (d. 1901), a grandson of Charles Joseph Marie Lenglart (1740–1816), was a collector in Lille who owned works by Boilly, although this painting was not in the sale of Lenglart’s collection of 10 Mar. 1902.
