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Game of Checkers

Checkers Artist Louis-Léopold Boilly

The Family Checkers Game Oil 1803	L’Interior d’un Grand Café Parisian Watercolor on paper 1815)
Game of Draughts (Checkers) at the Lamblin Café Oil 1820	Le Jeu de Dames Checkers Game 1836

• The artist was a French painter and printmaker and son of a wood carver, Arnould Boilly and came from a modest family.
  
  
• Léopold lived in Douai until 1778, when he traveled to Arras for instruction from Dominique Doncre in ‘trompe l'oeil’ style of painting.
  
  
• Painted portraits for a living before moving to Paris in 1785, where he began to paint the detailed anecdotal pictures of fashionable Parisians.
  
  
• Between 1789 and 1791, he created eight small scenes on moralizing and amorous subjects for the Avignon collector Esprit-Claude-François Calvet, including "The Visit" (1789; Saint-Omer, Musée Hôtel Sandelin).
  
  
• His early genre style produced slightly erotic social scenes that were popular among many Parisian patrons for its natural representation of Parisian life.
  
  
• However, in 1794, after one of his paintings was condemned for its ‘obscenity’ according to the social status of the time and the artist was threatened with imprisonment, Boilly began painting social scenes that depicted daily life in France and he created images of Parisian endeavors such as a simple game of checkers.
  
  
• Became known for his realistic and dramatic genre scenes of Parisian life and society during the Revolution and French Empire.
  
  
• His realistic depictions in the checkers theme from 1803 until 1836 show people in different, rather intimate settings and moods such as a family deep in a game at the checkerboard, or a group of men challenging each other in a friendly game of checkers at the local café/inn.
  
  
• Prolific painter in oils and watercolors known for his genre scenes of Parisian life and society during the Revolution and the French Empire; he was also noted for his pioneering use of lithography.
  
  
• Léopold exhibited at the Salon between 1791 and 1824, where he received a gold medal in 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.
  
  
• Boilly’s artistic renditions in oils, watercolors and lithographs reflect a time in French history with great detail of expression, gesture, costuming, textiles and often, a dramatic use of lighting to emphasize the subject matter and scene, as clearly represented in the artworks depicting common checkers games in various surroundings.

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