Two Standing Figures (Study for A Game of Billiards)

Description

Louis-Léopold Boilly made these two figure studies for his painting A Game of Billiards (see photo). In the final composition, the left figure from the study appears toward the right end of the billiard table, and the other figure appears at the left end. Boilly's genre scenes like A Game of Billiards-animated with a variety of participants-made him the premier chronicler of Parisian life from the Revolutionary to the Restoration periods. In the drawing, Boilly concentrated on the isolated figures, simply sketching in rudimentary lines for legs and the table and carefully examining light effects on the upper part of the men's suits.

Provenance

[Christie's, London (6 July 1976), no. 100, pl. 26]; [Shepherd Gallery, New York]; purchased in 1976.

Two Standing Figures (Study for A Game of Billiards)

Louis Léopold Boilly

c. 1807

Accession Number

2008.382

Medium

black chalk with gray and brown-black chalk, with stumping, framing lines in brown-black chalk

Dimensions

Sheet: 31.2 x 26.6 cm (12 5/16 x 10 1/2 in.); Overall: 31.2 x 27.3 cm (12 5/16 x 10 3/4 in.)

Classification

Drawing

Museum

The Cleveland Museum of Art

Cleveland, United States

Credit Line

Bequest of Muriel Butkin