Two Standing Figures (Study for A Game of Billiards)

c. 1807

Louis Léopold Boilly

(French, 1761–1845)

Culture

France, 19th century

Medium

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

Support

Brown (wove?) paper possibly discolored from blue, laid down on beige laid paper

Measurements

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.)

Credit Line

Bequest of Muriel Butkin 2008.382

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Location

Not on view

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.