Provenance
Possibly (anonymous sale [Prince Galitzin?], Paris, 18 December 1826, no. 140). André Vincent, Paris, by 1930;[1] (his sale, Galerie Jean Charpentier, Paris, 25 May 1933, no. 15);[2] purchased by (Étienne Bignou, Paris, France); sold 1933 to Chester Dale [1883-1962], New York; bequest 1943 to NGA.
[1] Lent by Vincent to an exhibition in Paris in 1930.
[2] The catalogue of the Vincent sale both confuses the provenance of this picture with that of its composition's other version, then in the collection of Baron Henri de Rothschild, and misidentifies it as _The Young Artist_, a painting actually at the Hermitage, Saint Petersburg. The Henri de Rothschild collection was evacuated to England during World War II, where a German bombing raid destroyed many of its pictures, including, it is believed, the "Rothschild version" of the NGA painting.
Accession Number
1943.7.1
Medium
oil on canvas
Dimensions
overall: 73.5 x 59.5 cm (28 15/16 x 23 7/16 in.) | framed: 93.3 x 78.7 cm (36 3/4 x 31 in.)
Classification
Painting
Credit Line
Chester Dale Collection
Tags
Painting Neoclassical & Romantic (1751–1850) Oil Painting Canvas French
Background & Context
Background Story
Louis-Leopold Boilly (1761-1845) was a French painter known for his genre scenes of Parisian life and his optical illusion paintings that combine the precision of Dutch genre painting with the social observation of the early 19th century. A Painter's Studio from c. 1800 depicts an artist's studio in the genre tradition of artist-in-studio paintings that goes back to Rembrandt and Vermeer. The c. 1800 date places this in the period when Boilly was producing the genre scenes of Parisian life that are his most accomplished works, and the artist's studio subject allows him to exercise his talent for depicting the tools and materials of the painter's trade with the precision that distinguishes his best genre painting.
Cultural Impact
A Painter's Studio is important in the history of French genre painting because it demonstrates the precision and social observation that distinguish Boilly's best work. The artist-in-studio subject allows Boilly to combine the genre tradition of depicting the painter's workplace with the social observation of early 19th-century Parisian life, creating a painting that is simultaneously a genre subject and a document of artistic practice at the turn of the 19th century.
Why It Matters
A Painter's Studio is Boilly's genre precision and social observation: an artist's studio rendered with the meticulous detail and social observation that distinguish his best work. The c. 1800 painting combines the genre tradition of the artist-in-studio with the documentary precision of early 19th-century French genre painting.
