The Cleveland Museum of Art

Collection Online as of December 19, 2025

Woman in Front of a Fireplace

c. 1805–7

Louis Léopold Boilly

(French, 1761–1845)
France, early 19th Century
black chalk and gray wash heightened with white chalk, squared in black chalk, on blue wove paper
Sheet: 46 x 37 cm (18 1/8 x 14 9/16 in.)
Andrew R. and Martha Holden Jennings Fund 1974.93
Catalogue raisonné: Harrisse 948; Bréton and Zuber 658 D
Location: Not on view

Did You Know?

The Egypt-inspired decor throughout the interior seen in this drawing was especially fashionable in early 19th-century France.

Description

Marie-Élisabeth Godard d’Aucourt de Saint-Just, shown here, belonged to a wealthy French shipbuilding family. Louis Léopold Boilly probably created this drawing to present for approval the preliminary composition of d’Aucourt’s painted portrait. The grid overlaying the drawing suggests a direct transfer to canvas; the image changed dramatically in the painting, where d’Aucourt appears in a grotto, unoccupied. That composition aligned with gender norms at the time that placed women in the natural world rather than the cultural sphere. Perhaps still interested in the drawing’s costume and interior, Boilly later reused them in a sheet depicting a working-class milliner, or hatmaker.
  • after 1807-1865
    Henri-Auguste-César Serrur [1794–1865], Paris
    1866
    (his sale, Hôtel Drouot, Paris, January 15, 1866, no. 149)
    1898
    Henri Binder
    1936
    (his sale, Hotel Drouot, Paris, December 5, 1936, no. 10)
    after 1936-1972
    Private collection, Paris
    1972
    (sale, Hôtel Drouot, Paris, June 12, 1972, no. 16)
    ?-1974
    (Galerie Nathan, Zurich, sold to the Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH)
    1974-
    Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH
  • Atelier de Serrur, peintre d’histoire: Ses œuvres et sa collection particulière. Paris: Hôtel Drouot, 1866. Mentioned: p. 22, no. 149
    Harrisse, Henry. L.-L. Boilly, peintre, dessinateur et lithographe: Sa vie et son œuvre, 1761–1845. Paris: Société de Propagation des Livres d’art, 1898. Mentioned: p. 169, no. 948
    Catalogue des tableaux anciens, pastels, dessins anciens [. . .] provenant de la collection de M. B. Paris: Hôtel Drouot, 1936. Mentioned: p. 5, no. 10
    Dessins et tableaux anciens. Paris: Hôtel Drouot, 1972. Mentioned: no. 16; Reproduced: cover
    Lee, Sherman E. "The Year in Review for 1974." The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art 62, no. 3 (1975): 62-102. p. 99 no. 58, illus. p. 78. 25152580
    Scottez-De Wambrechies, Annie and Sylvain Laveissière. Boilly, 1761–1845: Un Grand Peintre français de la Révolution à la Restauration. Exh. cat. Lille: Musée des Beaux-Arts de Lille, 1989. Mentioned: p. 108
    Bréton, Étienne and Pascal Zuber. Louis-Léopold Boilly, 1761–1845: Le Peintre de la société parisienne de Louis XVI à Louis-Philippe, 2:642 (ill.), 918, no. 658 D. Paris: Arthena, 2019. Mentioned: vol. 2, pp. 642, 918, no. 658 D; Reproduced: p. 642
    Salsbury, Britany. Nineteenth-Century French Drawings: The Cleveland Museum of Art. Lewes, UK, Cleveland, Ohio: GILES; Cleveland Museum of Art, 2023. Mentioned and reproduced: p. 70-73, no. 2
  • Nineteenth-Century French Drawings from the Cleveland Museum of Art. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (January 20-June 11, 2023).
    French Drawings from the Collection. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (December 13, 1994-March 12, 1995).
    Rococo, Revolution, Restoration. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (July 11-September 24, 1989).
    Treasures on Paper. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (May 10-July 24, 1988).
    Year in Review: 1974. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (March 11-April 6, 1975).
  • {{cite web|title=Woman in Front of a Fireplace|url=false|author=Louis Léopold Boilly|year=c. 1805–7|access-date=19 December 2025|publisher=Cleveland Museum of Art}}

Source URL:

https://www.clevelandart.org/art/1974.93