This is one of more than 5,000 small-format portraits by Louis-Léopold Boilly, who depended on this type of work for a steady stream of income. His enormous output was made possible by the use of optical devices that allowed him to paint more quickly. Boilly’s self-proclaimed goal was to complete a picture in under two hours so that the client could take it home shortly after the sitting—anticipating the portrait photographs that would flood visual culture in Europe in the second half of the nineteenth century.
Like many of his contemporaries, such as Jacques-Louis David and Adélaïde Labille-Guiard, Boilly painted during a tumultuous period that included the French Revolution, the rise and rule of Napoleon, and Napolean’s subsequent defeat and the restoration of the monarchy. Boilly captured the shifting cultural and aesthetic norms in this swiftly changing environment, particularly as relates to the complicated rules and expectations involving gender. Here, the contrast between the simplicity of the unidentified sitter’s earrings, necklace, and white empire-waisted dress and her laboriously braided hair reflects the transition, circa 1800, from the fashionable luxury of the pre-revolutionary era to the more reserved self-fashioning of Napoleonic times.
