Reading of the Bulletin of the Grand Army

historical

Boilly's painting hinges on a family's concern for a son absent on the German front during the Napoleonic war, as the boy's grandfather and father study a map. There are touches of black humour in the foreground, where children play war games and pets squabble, but the overriding impression is of the apprehensive concern of people caught up in the tide of events.

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Reading of the Bulletin of the Grand Army

About the Artist

Louis Léopold Boilly

1761 – 1845

French painter and printmaker. The son of a wood-carver, Arnould Boilly (1764-79), he lived in Douai until 1778, when he went to Arras to receive instruction in trompe l'oeil painting from Dominique Doncre (1743-1820). He moved to Paris in 1785. Between 1789 and 1791 he executed eight small scenes on moralizing and amorous subjects for the Avignon collector Esprit-Claude-François Calvet (1728-1810), including The Visit (1789; Saint-Omer, Musée Hôtel Sandelin). He exhibited at the Salon between 1791 and 1824 and received a gold medal at the Salon of 1804. From the beginning his genre subjects were extremely popular with the public and collectors. In 1833, at a time when his popularity was declining, he was admitted to the Légion d'honneur and the Institut de France.

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