Lot 178
Lot 178
Provenant d’une collection particulière suisse
LOUIS-LÉOPOLD BOILLY (LA BASSÉE 1761-1845 PARIS)

Portrait d’un officier d’un régiment de hussards

Price Realised EUR 12,600
Estimate
EUR 1,000 - EUR 2,000
Closed: 12 Jun 2025
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LOUIS-LÉOPOLD BOILLY (LA BASSÉE 1761-1845 PARIS)

Portrait d’un officier d’un régiment de hussards

Price Realised EUR 12,600
Closed: 12 Jun 2025
Price Realised EUR 12,600
Closed: 12 Jun 2025
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Details
LOUIS-LÉOPOLD BOILLY (LA BASSÉE 1761-1845 PARIS)
Portrait d’un officier d’un régiment de hussards
huile sur toile, manque et trou dans la toile, sur sa toile et son châssis d’origine
21,5 x 16,6 cm (812 x 612 in.)
Provenance
Collection particulière, Suisse.
Literature
E. Bréton, P. Zuber, Louis-Léopold Boilly 1761-1845. Le peintre de la société parisienne de Louis XVI à Louis-Philippe, Paris, 2019, II, p. 822, n°1622 PP, reproduit en couleurs p. 823.
FURTHER DETAILS
LOUIS-LÉOPOLD BOILLY (1761-1845), PORTRAIT OF AN OFFICER OF THE HUSSARS, OIL ON CANVAS, UNLINED, ON ITS ORIGINAL STRETCHER

The young hussar officer in our painting is wearing the medal of the Order of the Legion of Honour, which had been created in May 1802. His moustache is a personal choice, as the armies of the early 19th century did not impose specific hairstyles on their soldiers. This would, however, be the subject of numerous regulations in the second half of the 19th century and under the Second Empire (the shape of the moustache, length, beard, etc.).

A NOTE ON THE ARTIST - BOILLY, INVENTOR OF SERIAL PORTRAITURE

Boilly (1761-1845) was the best, and perhaps most peaceful chronicler of a very turbulent period in French history, spanning from the end of the Ancien Régime to the beginning of the 19th century. He produced works of great sensitivity, though not devoid of a certain mockery, during each successive regime - the Revolution, the short-lived First Republic, the Directoire, the Consulate, the Empire, the Restoration and the July Monarchy – providing a very accurate snapshot of his century.

After the Revolution, with the weakening of the central power that had previously commissioned large-scale works that often took years to produce, many artists found themselves in a rather precarious situation. Boilly approached this change with great intellience, observing the decline of the aristocracy and the parallel rise of a new bourgeois social class, urbanites with comfortable incomes but no privileges, and came up with a product, both accessible and personal, that he could offer this new market. His idea was to create a standardised portrait that would always have the same dimensions (around 20 x 15 cm), using a canvas prepared with the same cream ground, with the same brown background, and the same frame. He launched this concept at the Salon of 1800, where the artist had listed under no. 39 “several portraits, each painted in a two-hour session”. A clever publicist, Boilly gave his full address in the booklet: rue du faubourg Saint-Denis, près le boulevard, la 2e porte cochère à gauche. These portraits were an instant success, becoming a stable source of income for the prolific artist, who also continued to paint in other genres. His son Jules Boilly (1796-1874) maintained that his father had painted of 5,000 such portraits, and in the sale organised by Boilly in 1829 he claimed to have executed a scarcely less impressive 4,500. The exact number remains unknown.

Though fashions changed, and his signature frames became somewhat outdated over the thirty-five years he worked, people did not care, everyone wanted their portrait by Boilly. The fixed price, fluctuating only with inflation, attracted a very varied clientele, in an approach that could today be described as democratic. Lots 166 to 185 present a wonderful cross-section of this chapter in the history of painting, a precursor to the art photography that was to develop a few years later.
Brought to you by
Bérénice VerdierAssociate Specialist
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