BOILLY, Louis Léopold
(b. 1761, La Bassé, d. 1845, Paris)

Reading of the Bulletin of the Grand Army

1807
Oil on canvas, 44 x 59 cm
Art Museum, Saint Louis

Boilly's painting hinges on a family's concern for a son absent on the German front during the Napoleonic war, as the boy's grandfather and father study a map. There are touches of black humour in the foreground, where children play war games and pets squabble, but the overriding impression is of the apprehensive concern of people caught up in the tide of events.




© Web Gallery of Art, created by Emil Krén and Daniel Marx.