LOUIS-LÉOPOLD BOILLY (LA BASSÉE, 1761 – PARIS, 1845) Landscape c. 1800 Oil on canvas 32.5 x 40.5 cm. Publication Etienne BRETON, Pascale ZUBER, Catalogue Raisonné of Boilly, the painter of Parisian life from Louis XVI to Louis-Philippe, no. 873 P. Expert opinion Etienne Breton Provenance Basset auction, Paris, 7 April 1824, no. 185 In this idyllic landscape, reminiscent of a postcard, time seems to stand still. In the foreground on the right, a group of figures in traditional dress, almost dressed for a Sunday outing, are chatting peacefully. Two women with their children have paused on their walk to speak to two men sitting on rocks. These figures, by their positioning and the light falling upon them, serve as the point of entry into this landscape, which unfolds behind them in successive planes along a winding path. Indeed, immediately to the left, a patch of shadow compels us to look beyond it towards a village nestled on a terraced hillside. Further on, it is the blue of a sunken lake that draws our gaze before it is lost amongst distant, ethereal peaks, in accordance with the principles of atmospheric perspective. But beyond the topography alone, the painter seeks here to capture a picturesque landscape through the architecture of its buildings, but also through the folklore of its inhabitants, in a romantic regionalist vision. This artistic movement to which Boilly subscribes here arose from a desire to rediscover simple subjects in painting drawn from everyday life—albeit a fantasised version—where the locals always appear in their finest attire, thereby authenticating their connection to a particular region. Here, the presence of mountains and a lake suggests a pre-Alpine landscape, perhaps in Piedmont. Louis-Léopold Boilly (1761–1845) was a French painter and engraver, renowned for his portraits and genre scenes depicting the lives of his contemporaries. The son of a woodcarver, he studied painting—and more specifically ‘trompe-l’œil’—under Dominique Doncre in Arras. Settling in Paris in 1785, he began his career with gallant scenes in the style of Greuze and Fragonard. However, as a great admirer of 17th-century Dutch painting, he developed a fine, porcelain-like touch in the style of Gérard Dou or Van Mieris, whose paintings he owned. Forced to change his subjects, which were deemed immoral, during the Revolution, he became a portrait painter, taking particular care to convey the intimacy of family or friendly relationships. Although he exhibited for the first time at the Salon in 1794, it was chiefly during the Directoire and the Empire that he rose to fame. He enjoyed great success at the 1798 Salon with a group portrait, *Réunion d’artistes dans l’atelier d’Isabey* (Gathering of Artists in Isabey’s Studio), and was subsequently awarded the gold medal at the 1804 for *The Arrival of the Coach* (both now in the Louvre), which depicts one of his early scenes of urban life – a subject that would become his speciality. As a chronicler of the social life of his time, Boilly became a ‘painter of modern life’ ahead of his time.