Louis-Leopold Boilly - A Girl at a Window [after 1799]

Louis-Leopold Boilly - A Girl at a Window [after 1799], a photo by Gandalf's Gallery on Flickr.

Painted as a grisaille (a work of varying tones, but a single colour), this picture is intended as an imitation of a mounted engraving, although the subject does not duplicate any known print. It is probably a derivative by Boilly of his Salon picture of 1799. The composition derives from a type of genre scene popular in 17th-century Holland and which also became popular with collectors in France in the later 18th century. 

Boilly (1761-1845) was born near Lille; he first worked in Douai, then Arras, and finally in Paris, from 1785. He exhibited at the Paris Salon between 1791 and 1824. He painted genre scenes and small portraits.

[Oil on canvas, 55.2 x 45.7 cm]