The Two Manners of Louis-Léopold Boilly and French Genre Painting in Transition

Louis Boilly's son noted that his father had worked in two distinct manners; the first during the 1790's and the second from the Consulate era onward. This article examines a selection from Boilly's genre oeuvre with a view toward defining the essential formal and iconographic characteristics. of each. It is suggested that Boilly is a transitional figure. Works in the first manner are typical of the later eighteenth century, with their interest in moral, sentimental, even mildly erotic themes. By contrast, Boilly's second manner anticipates developments in later nineteenth-century naturalism by evincing a strong desire to record daily life with a degree of objectivity.