Provenance
Marie-Caroline-Ferdinande-Louise de Naples, duchesse de Berry [1798-1870];[1] (her sale, Bellavoine and Margny, Paris, 28 January 1848, no. 80, as _Le diseur de bonne aventure_). Forestier; (estate sale, Hôtel Drouot, Paris, 11-15 December 1871, no. 6). Duc de Persigny, Château de Charamande; (his sale, Hôtel Drouot, Paris, 15 March 1876, no. 4, as _Une scène de boulevard_); purchased by Gillet. (Sale, Hôtel Drouot, Paris, 13-14 December 1943, no. 68, as _Scenes des boulevards_). (Sale, Sotheby's Monaco, 23 February 1986, no. 310, as _Scène de Boulevard_). (Sale, Christie, Manson & Woods, New York, 27 January 2000, no. 67); purchased 11 February 2000 through (Agnew's Inc., London) by NGA.
[1] The Duchesse's coat of arms, with inventory no. 23, are on the reverse of the panel.
Accession Number
2000.5.1
Medium
oil on wood
Dimensions
overall: 24 x 33 cm (9 7/16 x 13 in.) | framed: 40.3 x 48.3 x 5.1 cm (15 7/8 x 19 x 2 in.)
Classification
Painting
Credit Line
Gift of Victoria and Roger Sant
Tags
Painting Neoclassical & Romantic (1751–1850) Oil Painting French
Background & Context
Background Story
Louis-Leopold Boilly (1761-1845) was a French painter known for the precisely observed genre scenes of Parisian life that make him one of the most important painters of the transition from the 18th to the 19th century in France. The Card Sharp on the Boulevard from 1806 depicts a card sharp operating on a Parisian boulevard in the precisely observed, satirical manner that distinguishes Boilly's best genre scenes from the more formal painting of his contemporaries. The 1806 date places this in Boilly's most productive period, when he was producing the precisely observed genre scenes of Parisian life that are his most accomplished works, and the card sharp subject allows him to exercise his talent for satirical observation of Parisian society.
Cultural Impact
The Card Sharp on the Boulevard is important in the history of French genre painting because it demonstrates the precisely observed, satirical manner that Boilly brought to Parisian genre scenes. Boilly's precisely observed genre scenes—combining the detailed observation of Parisian life with satirical commentary—represent one of the most important traditions in French painting at the transition from the 18th to the 19th century, and the 1806 painting shows this tradition at its most satirical and observant.
Why It Matters
The Card Sharp on the Boulevard is Boilly's satirical Parisian genre: a card sharp on a Parisian boulevard rendered in the precisely observed manner of one of the most important genre painters at the transition from the 18th to the 19th century. The 1806 painting shows the combination of detailed observation with satirical commentary that makes Boilly's genre scenes so accomplished.
