Artwork Title: Collection of Drawings with Self Portrait and Portrait of Elleviou,

Collection of Drawings with Self Portrait and Portrait of Elleviou,, 1800

Louis-Leopold Boilly

A masterful painting by Louis-Léopold Boilly demonstrates the possibility of trompe l’oeil to mesmerize and even tempt the viewer to question the limits of visual and spatial reality. At the center of his painting, we find a man, the operatic tenor Jean Elleviou, wearing an historically appropriate pair of tights. Boilly’s painting was presented at the Salon de Paris, an annual exhibition of the finest cutting edge and Academically sanctioned works of art, in 1800. One testimony records that visitors reacted by reaching out toward the painting to see if drawings were really superimposed on the canvas, only to be prevented by the sight of perilous broken glass shards. In the lower left corner, a self portrait of Boilly, itself not fully complete, smiles at onlookers with a tongue-in-cheek charm and satisfaction. Boilly’s larger, finished self portrait was on view nearby in the installation, a further jest at the myriad of art spectators. On the right of the painting, sketches of children look in various directions, one gazing directly out of the painting. The entire surface of the painting is smoothly flat, a well-licked and glossy thing to behold. The central figure of Elleviou had appeared in the Salon two years earlier, also painted by Boilly. (http://wtfarthistory.com/post/7046967247/fool-my-eyes-but-dont-wear-tights)
Uploaded on Aug 31, 2016 by Suzan Hamer

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