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Grayscale painting of woman with short hair and dark dress

This grayscale, oval-shaped painting depicts a light-skinned woman from the chest up. She faces the viewer directly, and her face and body is lit from the left. The woman has short, messy curls, large light eyes, a slightly smiling mouth, and a small pointed chin. Her dark dress has short puff sleeves and a low scoop neckline. A transparent ruffle runs along the top of the dress. The background behind the woman is a cloudy gray. Bordering the bottom of the ovular portrait is a signature and date. A lightly sketched rectangle encompasses the portrait and signature.

Gallery Text

Boilly was a master of trompe l’oeil imagery as seen in this painting, which at first glance looks like a print. The composition follows the conventions of a medallion portrait print, where the date and artist’s signature appear directly below the oval image. To complete his illusion, Boilly worked in grisaille (tones of black and gray) and painted a plate mark at the edges of the canvas to mimic the indentation in the paper that a copper printing plate makes when it is put through a press.

A musicologist and prolific playwright, Alexandrine-Sophie de Bawr (1773–1860) was one of the few women to be elected to the prestigious Comédie Française. Though she was relatively unknown at the time this portrait was painted, Boilly asserted her future fame by depicting her like an established celebrity whose likeness circulated in prints. Her short haircut, named à la Titus, after the Roman emperor, was fashionable during the Napoleonic empire.

Identification and Creation

Object Number
2011.454
People
Louis-Léopold Boilly, French (La Bassée, France 1761 - 1845 Paris, France)
Title
Alexandrine-Sophie de Bawr
Classification
Paintings
Work Type
painting
Date
1810
Culture
French
Persistent Link
https://hvrd.art/o/336539

Location

Location
Level 2, Room 2200, European and American Art, 17th–19th century, The Emergence of Romanticism in Early Nineteenth-Century France
View this object's location on our interactive map

Physical Descriptions

Medium
Oil on canvas
Dimensions
22 x 16 cm (8 11/16 x 6 5/16 in.)
frame: 36.3 x 31.8 x 6.5 cm (14 5/16 x 12 1/2 x 2 9/16 in.)
Inscriptions and Marks
  • Signed: lower left: L. Boilly pinx; lower right: 1810
  • exhibition label: back of frame, bottom, printed and inscribed: SOCIÉTÉ DES AMIS DU MUSÉE CARNAVALET / Exposition L-L BOILLY / JUIN 1930 / [inscribed in graphite:] 6 hauteur à l'ovale / MM. Jacques SELIGMANN & Fils / ANCIEN HOTEL DE SAGAN / 57, Rue Saint-Dominique - PARIS / Monsieur [inscribed in black ink:] Charles de Lesseps [printed:] No [inscribed:] 71
  • inscription: back of stretcher, top, black ink: Mme de Bawr / auteur dramatique
  • label: back of stretcher, bottom, octagonal, blue rimmed, black ink: 728[7?]
  • label: back of stretcher, top left: circular label inscribed in blue ballpoint ink: 25
  • gallery label: back of frame, bottom, printed: HAZLITT, / GOODEN & FOX LTD / 38 Bury Street / St James's / London
  • label: back of frame, upper left, blue rimmed octagonal, inscribed in graphite(?): No 89[?]
  • seal: back of frame, upper right: remnants of a red wax seal
  • label: back of frame, octagonal label: [obscured by Carnavalet/Seligmann label]
  • label: back of frame, top, printed and inscribed: VIC PEARSON & CO LTD / Fine Art Import and Export Agents / 11-13 Macklin Street London WC2B 5NH / [inscribed in red ink:] VEX 285/80 / Hazlitt / Peper.
  • inscription: back of stretcher, lower left, graphite: No 89

Provenance

Recorded Ownership History
Charles de Lesseps, Paris (by 1930-1937), sold; [his sale, Drouot, Paris, December 2, 1937, lot 20, repr.]. [Palais d'Orsay, Paris, March 28, 1979, lot 140, repr.], sold; to M. Ader [Remi Ader, Paris?]. [Hazlitt, Gooden & Fox, London, after 1979], sold; to Christian Peper, Esq., St. Louis, c. 1980 - 2011, sold (by his Estate); to Harvard Art Museums, 2011.

(1) Charles de Lesseps dates: 1849-1923. Painting was listed in his possession in 1930 Seligmann exhibition; his estate sale was at Drouot in 1937.

Acquisition and Rights

Credit Line
Harvard Art Museums/Fogg Museum, Bequest of Grenville L. Winthrop, by exchange
Accession Year
2011
Object Number
2011.454
Division
European and American Art
Contact
am_europeanamerican@harvard.edu
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Descriptions

Commentary
Within his vast oeuvre, Boilly painted only around 50 trompe-l'oeils. Since the first time it was published, the woman depicted in this likeness has been identified as Sophie de Bawr (1773-1860). Writer, dramaturge, composer of opera, Bawr also has the distinction of being the first woman historian of music. An aristocrat by birth, Alexandrine-Sophie Goury de Champgrand is credited with running a notable salon in Paris and was friends with many notable women, among them the painter Elisabeth Vigée-Lebrun. In 1809, she married a Russian, Baron de Bawr.

Boilly painted the portrait in trompe-l'oeil grisaille to emulate a print. The artist's decision to imitate a print is interesting on several levels. First, it flatters the sitter by presenting her in a widely-defused and easily reproduced medium. In so doing, the viewer assumes the sitter is a well-known and recognized person. Boilly is certainly also aware of the threat of print and other reproductive imagery (perhaps even developments in photography) to the practice of painting. He establishes the primacy of paint by producing a rival to another medium, and fooling the viewer into thinking that this is something other than what it is.

Publication History

  • Jacques Seligmann et Fils, Exposition L.-L. Boilly, 31 Mai - 22 Juin 1930, exh. cat., Jacques Seligmann (Paris, 1930), p. 27, cat. no. 71
  • Saint Louis Art Museum, A Gentleman Collects, exh. cat., Saint Louis Art Museum (St. Louis, 2002), p. 14

Exhibition History

  • Exposition L.-L. Boilly, 31 Mai - 22 Juin 1930, Société des Amis du Musée Carnavalet, Paris, 05/31/1930 - 06/22/1930
  • A Gentleman Collects, Saint Louis Art Museum, St. Louis, 10/25/2002 - 01/05/2003
  • Re-View: S425A (Small Niche) The Art of Deceit: Looking at French Trompe L'Oeil, Harvard Art Museums/Arthur M. Sackler Museum, Cambridge, 09/10/2010 - 01/08/2011
  • Ancient to Modern, Harvard Art Museums, Cambridge, 01/31/2012 - 06/01/2013
  • 32Q: 2200 19th Century, Harvard Art Museums, Cambridge, 11/16/2014 - 01/01/2050

Verification Level

This record has been reviewed by the curatorial staff but may be incomplete. Our records are frequently revised and enhanced. For more information please contact the Division of European and American Art at am_europeanamerican@harvard.edu