LOUIS-LEOPOLD BOILLY - Huile sur toile

LOUIS-LÉOPOLD BOILLY
, LA BASSÉE, 1761 – PARIS, 1845
Maternal caresses
Oil on canvas 46,5 x 38,5 cm
In the quiet of a garden, a tender family scene is offered to us. A young mother, like a modern Madonna, embraces the face of her little girl. Busy with the contemplation of her child, she shows us her medal profile, while the little girl stares at us, with her head in front. Standing against each other, they offer a striking contrast. One is brunette, the other blonde. The mother, hieratic, is dressed in a long white dress in the antiquisite fashion of the Empire, whose long folds descend to the ground with elegance. The little girl, in full movement, makes her black dress shimmer with curved folds that catch the light. Particular care is given to their clothes, in which the painter excels. The decor, with its romantic allure, is skilfully organised. It prefigures in a singular way the staging of photographic portraits in the studio. From the background, a halo of light, corresponding to a gap in the trees, discreetly frames the maternal embrace. However, the main lighting comes from the front, focusing on the mother from whom the light seems to emanate, thus reinforcing the expression of her maternal love.
Boilly is the painter of scenes of family intimacy, which he knows how to stage with subtlety under an impression of simplicity. Here he renews the genre of portraiture by bringing a profoundly sensitive dimension to it.
Louis-Léopold Boilly (1761-1845) was a French painter and engraver, renowned for his portraits and genre scenes testifying to the lives of his contemporaries. The son of a woodcarver, he studied painting, and more particularly 'trompe-l'oeil', with Dominique Doncre in Arras. Established in Paris in 1785, he began his career with gallant scenes in the spirit of Greuze and Fragonard. However, a great admirer of 17th century Dutch painting, he developed a fine, porcelain touch like Gérard Dou or Van Mieris, whose paintings he owned. Having to change his subjects, considered immoral, under the Revolution, he became a portraitist. These Caresses maternelles are evidence of this turning point in his career. He then developed a particular care to suggest the intimacy of family or friendly relationships. Although he exhibited for the first time at the Salon in 1794, it was mainly under the Directoire and the Empire that he became famous. He had great success at the Salon of 1798 with a group portrait Réunion d'artistes dans l'atelier d'Isabey, and then received the gold medal at the Salon of 1804 for L'Arrivée de la diligence (both in the Louvre Museum), which represents one of his first scenes of urban life that was to become his speciality. As a chronicler of the social life of his time, Boilly became a 'painter of modern life' before his time. Knight of the Legion of Honour and then member of the Institut de France in 1833, he ended his career covered with honours.
Provenance: Former collection of Antenor Patiño (1896-1982) for his residence on Avenue Foch, Paris.
Work reproduced in, L.-L. Boilly, sa vie, son oeuvre, H. Harisse, Paris, 1898, p. 93, cat. no. 114.