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Léopold Boilly

Born: La Bassée , 5 July 1761
Died: Paris, 4 January 1845
Nationality: French
Background: 

son of wood-carver Arnould Boilly

Studies: 

with trompe l’oeil painter Dominique Doncre (Arras)

Career: 

1791 – begins exhibiting at Paris Salon

1794 – tried for obscenity by French Revolutionary Comittee of Public Safety for Lovers and the Escaped Bird (Louvre, Paris); Triumph of Marat (Versailles) clears him of charges

1804 – receives gold medal at the Salon

1833 – admitted to Institut de France and Légion d’honneur

1824 – stops exhibiting at the Salon

Commissions from: 

Napoleon Bonaparte

Important Artworks: 

Gathering of Artists in the Studio of Isabey, 1798 (Louvre, Paris)

The Card Sharp on the Boulevard, 1806 (National Gallery of Art, Washington, DC)

The Geography Lesson (Portrait of M. Gaudry and His Daughter), 1812 (Kimball Art Museum, Ft Worth)