Art Market Monitor

Global Coverage ~ Unique Analysis

  • AMMpro
  • AMM Fantasy Collecting Game
  • Podcast
  • Contact Us

Old Master Preview: Boilly

January 23, 2010 by Marion Maneker

Louis Leopold Boilly, Entrance to the Turkish Garden Cafe ($3-5m)
Louis Leopold Boilly, Entrance to the Turkish Garden Cafe ($3-5m)

Christie’s cover lot for the Old Master sale is this 19th Century painting by Louis Leopold Boilly. As Alan Wintermute explains in the catalogue note and in the videos from the press preview (below), Boilly was the first painter of “modern life.” There are only 20 of these types of painting by Boilly–as opposed to the 4500 small society portraits that are said to exist–because these works were not Boilly’s bread-and-butter business but his artistic vision.

A self-taught painter from Lille who started his career as a portraitist and painter of small-scale, erotic genre scenes, Boilly turned after the Revolution to the creation of large, formally complex, multi-figural scenes of contemporary public life which he submitted to the Salon exhibitions of the Louvre with the goal of winning popular and official recognition. ‘Boilly’s hopes of having his paintings catch the attention of visitors to the crowded exhibitions rested largely on his choice of subject’, Siegfried observed. He selected unusual public spectacles, generally associated with urban leisure, such as the entertainments afforded the throngs in The Entrance to the Turkish Garden Café, a painting which he exhibited to great success at the Salons of 1812 and 1814.

The Entrance to the Turkish Garden Café is one of the most ambitious and technically accomplished paintings of Boilly’s career, in which the artist effortlessly integrated more than sixty figures into a dazzlingly diverse portrait of contemporary Parisian society during Napoleon’s imperial reign.

More from Art Market Monitor

  • Christie’s New York Old Masters = $17.9mChristie’s New York Old Masters = $17.9m
  • Christie’s NY Old Master = $12.5mChristie’s NY Old Master = $12.5m
  • Christie’s NY Old Master = $34.34mChristie’s NY Old Master = $34.34m
  • Gleadell's Take on London and New YorkGleadell's Take on London and New York
  • Old Master New York ResultsOld Master New York Results
  • Old Master RashomonOld Master Rashomon

Filed Under: Artists Tagged With: Christie's, New York, Old Master

About Marion Maneker

LiveArt

Want to get Art Market Monitor‘s posts sent to you in our email? Sign up below by clicking on the Subscribe button.

  • About Us/ Contact
  • Podcast
  • AMMpro
  • Newsletter
  • FAQ

twitterfacebooksoundcloud
Privacy Policy
Terms & Conditions
California Privacy Rights
Do Not Sell My Personal Information
Advertise on Art Market Monitor
 

Loading Comments...