Jules Boilly (1796-1874) Portrait Of A Young Woman With A Fan

Jules BOILLY
(Paris 1796 - 1874)
Portrait of a young woman
Oil on canvas
H. 110 cm; L. 89 cm
Signed lower right, dated 1831

Provenance: Private collection in Eastern France

Reading the name of Boilly automatically brings to mind the thousands of small portraits made by Louis Léopold, the father, that we commonly found in groups, well ordered on the walls, which their pretty frames all similar make harmonious. Jules Boilly, the son, also made portraits, following the talent and reputation of his father. He opted for his own formats depending on the orders but remained stuck on compositions no longer than seventy centimeters. The majority are his drawings in graphite and chalk, easily reproducible in engravings.

Our portrait, of a more than generous format, is a recent rediscovery which completes the corpus of Jules Boilly in his great years of production, at the age of thirty-five. This very graceful work presents a young girl in an interior, dressed and hair styled in the pure fashion of Charles X, holding in her hand a small fan with a gold frame. The rendering of the material of the gloves and the transparency of the veil covering the arms is remarkable.