The Artist's Wife in His Studio

c. 1795–99

A young woman, traditionally identified as Boilly’s wife, examines a large portfolio amid the clutter of the artist’s studio, which includes an unpainted canvas, a plaster cast of a hand, and sculptures by other artists. She looks up from her task as if either she or we have intruded. The violin hanging from the back of the chair hints at the relationship between artist and sitter—musical instruments sometimes appear in paintings as symbols of romantic love.

Medium	oil on canvas
Dimensions	16 x 12 15/16 in. (40.6 x 32.9 cm) Frame: 20 3/4 x 17 5/8 x 1 3/4 in. (52.7 x 44.8 x 4.4 cm)
Object Number	1955.646
Acquisition	Acquired by Sterling and Francine Clark before 1955
Status	On View

Image Caption

Louis Léopold Boilly, The Artist's Wife in His Studio, c. 1795–99, oil on canvas. Clark Art Institute, 1955.646

Select Bibliography

Cunningham, Charles C., et al. The Elegant Academics: Chroniclers of 19th-Century Parisian Life. Exhibition catalogue. Williamstown, MA: The Clark, 1974. Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute.. In the Studio: The Making of Art in 19th-Century France, Sept. 12-Oct. 25, 1981. Cat. by David B. Cass. Lovett, Jennifer Gordon. The Art and Craft of Nineteenth-Century Sculpture. Williamstown, MA: Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute, 1994. Siegfried, Susan L. The Art of Louis-Léopold Boilly: Modern Life in Napoleonic France. Exhibition catalogue. New Haven: Yale University Press in association with Kimbell Art Museum and National Gallery of Art, 1995. Rand, Richard. Intimate Encounters: Love and Domesticity in 18th-Century France. Exhibition catalogue. Hanover, NH: Hood Museum of Art, Dartmouth College; Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1997. Le Corbeillier, Claire. "Mercury, Messenger of Taste." Bulletin of the Metropolitan Museum of Art New Series 22, no. 1 (Summer 1963): 238. Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute. List of Paintings in the Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute. Williamstown, MA: Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute, 1970. Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute. List of Paintings in the Sterling & Francine Clark Art Institute. Williamstown, MA: Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute, 1972. Hallam, John Stephen. The Genre Works of Louis-Leopold Boilly. Ph.D. diss., University of Washington, 1979. Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute. List of Paintings in the Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute. Williamstown, MA: Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute, 1984. Kern, Steven, ed. List of Paintings in the Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute. Williamstown, MA: Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute, 1992. Amen, John. Saturday Route, Springfield and Four County West (June 1978). Anonymous. "Nineteenth-Century Painting and Sculpture." The Magazine Antiques 152 (October 1997): 522–31. Harrisse, Henry. L.-L. Boilly, peintre, dessinateur, et lithographe; sa vie et son oeuvre, 17611845. Paris: Société de propagation des livres d'art, 1898. Scottez-De Wambrechies, Annie and Florence Raymond. Boilly (1761–1845). Exhibition catalogue. Paris: Éditions Nicolas Chaudun; Lille: Palais des Beaux-Arts, 2011. Lees, Sarah, ed. Nineteenth-Century European Paintings at the Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute. Williamstown, MA: Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute; New Haven and London: distributed by Yale University Press, 2012. Marmottan, Paul. La peintre Louis Boilly (17611845). Paris: H. Gateau, 1913. Gaborit, Jean-René. Jean-Baptiste Pigalle, 17141785: sculptures de Musée du Louvre. Monographies des musées de France. Paris: Editions de la Réunion des musées nationaux, 1985.

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EUROPEAN PAINTINGS CATALOGUE ENTRY

Provenance

Sale, Drouot, Paris, 25 Feb. 1869, no. 5, as Son épouse; possibly sale, Drouot, Paris, 12 May 1883, no. 4, as Portrait de Mme Boilly; Louise Suzanne Oger de Bréart, Paris (d. 1886; her sale, Paris, 17–22 May 1886, no. 3, as La jeune artiste); sale, Galerie Georges Petit, Paris, 2 May 1894, no. 1, as La jeune artiste; Félix Doistau, Paris (until 1909, his sale, Galerie Georges Petit, Paris, 9 June 1909, no. 5, as La jeune artiste); Alfred de Rothschild, London (d. 1918, bequeathed to Wombwell); Almina Victoria Marie Alexandra Wombwell, 5th Countess of Carnarvon, his daughter (1918–25, her sale, Christie’s, London, 22 May 1925, no. 54, ill., as The Artist’s Wife in His Studio, sold to Knoedler); [Knoedler, New York, sold to Clark, 31 Dec. 1925]; Robert Sterling Clark, 1925–55; Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute, 1955.