A Visit to the Grandfather Louis-Léopold Boilly

ln addition to his portraits, the Arras painter Louis-Léopold Boilly, who settled in Paris in the 1780s, attracted attention with his genre paintings, although his indecent boudoir scenes almost led to his death by the guillotine du ring the Jacobin dictatorship. From the beginning, in addition to love subjects, the painter was keen to capture the everyday life of the bourgeoisie as well. Although the depiction of the care of grandparents has a certain moralising overtone, the painter intended to emphasise the idyll of the visit in a somewhat theatrical and sentimental way, in compliance with the taste of the time. Seventeenth­century Dutch “fine painters”, as well as Gabriel Metsu and Gerard ter Borch served as role models for Boilly, as evidenced by his enamelled colours and meticulous painting style, which also demonstrates a sense of materiality.