Plan your visit. 225 Madison Avenue at 36th Street, New York, NY 10016.

Plan your visit. 225 Madison Avenue at 36th Street, New York, NY 10016.

Portrait of an Artist Seated at an Easel

Louis Boilly
1761-1845

Portrait of an Artist Seated at an Easel

18 3/4 x 16 1/16 inches (476 x 407 mm)
Black chalk with white chalk, with blending on brown paper.
1986.17

Purchased as a gift of Mrs. Landon K. Thorne, Jr.

Notes
Watermark: none visible through lining.
The artist's studio was a favorite subject of Boilly, and he often treated the theme in both paintings and drawings. An inscription on the old mount indicates that this is a self-portrait painted at Arras in 1779, though it has also been suggested that the subject's style of dress may hint at a later date. The scale of the sheet is particularly impressive, as is the skillful use of stumped black chalk. -- Exhibition Label, from "Life Lines: Portrait Drawings from Dürer to Picasso."
Inscriptions/Markings
Inscribed at lower right in graphite, "L. B.".
Associated names
Thorne, Landon K. Jr., Mrs., donor.
Bibliography
Ryskamp, Charles, ed. Twenty-First Report to the Fellows of the Pierpont Morgan Library, 1984-1986. New York : Pierpont Morgan Library, 1989, p. 320.
Artist
Classification
Century Drawings
School
Department