Louis Boilly's Reading of the XIth and XIIth Bulletins of the Grande Armée

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Louis Boilly's Reading of the XIth and XIIth Bulletins of the Grande ArmeAuthor(s): Albert BoimeSource: Zeitschrift fr Kunstgeschichte, 54. Bd., H. 3 (1991), pp. 374-387Published by: Deutscher Kunstverlag GmbH Munchen BerlinStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/1482579Accessed: 19-08-2015 20:27 UTC

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2/15

Albert Boime

Louis

Boilly's Reading

of the

XIth and

XIIth

Bulletins

of

the GrandeArmre

The

little known

paintingby Louis-L6opold

Boilly

ntitled a

lecture u

Bulletin e a

Grande

Armie,

recently cquired by

the St. Louis

Art

Museum,

s one ofthe rtist's

mostunusual

works

both

for

ts

exceptional lace

n

his

repertoire

nd

for

ts

singular

ubject Fig.

)'.

Dated

1807

nd

exhibited t the Salon the

following ear,

t

pro-

vides a rare

glimpse

nto the

domestic

mpact

f

the

Napoleonic

wars.

Even more

extraordinary,

it

focuses

on

an artisanal

milieu2,

hus

telling

s

something

bout

Napoleon's

attempt

o

win the

laboring eopleto his sidedespite hefact hathis

military

ampaigns

ost heir

amilies

half

million

casualties nd forced

many

women nto

nevitable

celibacy.

Boilly's ong

life

panned

the

years

1761

-

1845,

beginning

ith

his

maturation

nder heOld

Re-

gime,

hen

his successive

xperience

f the

rauma

of the

Revolution,

he rise of

Napoleon,

the Re-

storation f the

Bourbons,

nd

finally,

evolution

again

in

1830.

These

years

witnessed drastic

changes n culturecorrespondingo the social

shifts,

nd

Boilly struggled

o

keep pace

with he

developing

aste.His

first ork nvolved senti-

mental,

moralizing,

ildly

rotic

mphasis sually

exhibiting

oignant

motional tates haracteristic

of the Old

Regime.

Eventually

e

established

is

reputation

orhis numerous

ortraits

f the

spir-

ingbourgeoisie

nd nteriorcenes f

everday

ife

done nmodest

ize,

these ast

occasionally

epre-

senting

exually uggestive

hemesbut

now in-

fluenced

y 17th-century

utch models

nd tend-

ing

toward

greater bjectivity

nd

ournalistic

e-

portage.Boilly

worked

for a

popular

market

y

ordering rints

f his

paintings

r

otherwise

l-

lowing

them o be

reproduced

nd

circulated

n

the

public

domain.

Ultimately,

hese

found heir

way

into the

humble

ottage

s well as luxurious

apartments

f

the

period.

He

produced rapidly

andprolificallyo accommodate hegrowingmar-

ket

for his

work. His

longevity

nd enormous

output

reveal the

progressive

volution

n

taste

towards realism that marks the ascendance of

the

middle class

during

he

time

of

Bonapartist

France3.

The

subject

f he t.Louis ArtMuseum's

picture

is

an

unusual alon

representation

f

thedomestic

lifeof the

working

lasses

during

he

Napoleonic

era.

n

addition

o the

theme,

he

genre

omposi-

tionuniquely resentstself s a series f ymbolic

vignettes

urrounding

central onvulsive ction

growing

ut of

family

trife.

he

majority

f the

workswith

Bonapartist

hemes

hown t

the

emi-

annual

alons,

whether

fficially

ommissionedr

independently

onceived,

end to

display

heroic

projections

of the

emperor, bigger-than-life

I want

o

express

my

gratitude

o Susan

Siegfried

nd

Judith

W. Mann fortheir

enerous elp

with

deas,

sources,

nd

photographs

n

theformationf this rti-

cle. am also

grateful

o

EdwardBerenson

orhis

n-

sightfuluggestions

n

Napoleonic

omesticife.Oth-

ers thathave made

lluminatinguggestions

re

Joni

Kinsey,Angela

Miller,

nd Lawrence

teefle,

r.

For

the

revious

iterature

n this

work

ee

H.

Harisse,

L.-L.

Boilly, eintre,

essinateur

t

ithographe:

a

vie

et

son

ceuvre

76i-I845,

aris

1898,

1,

No.

34;

A. Mabille

de

Poncheville,

oilly,

Paris

1931,

16;

M.

Delafond,

Louis

Boilly

1761-1845,

Musee

Marmottan,

aris

1984,

o8.

2

The unadorned nteriornd

rolled-up

leeves

f the

central

igure oint

unmistakably

o

an

artisanal

n-

terior.

he cream f the

working

lass

or thebottom

of the

bourgeoisie,

he killed rtisan

as a literatend

oftentimes

ntrepreneurial-minded

radesman.

He

could fford

he

heapplaster

astof

Napoleon

on the

fireplace

antle.

3

For the

two?manners

f

Boilly

eeM.

N.

Benisovitch,

>Une

autobiographie

u

peintre

ouis

Boilly,? ssays

in

Honor

of

Hans

Tietze,

88a-1954,

eds.

E.

Gombrich,

J.

S.

Held,

O.

Kurz,

Paris

958, 66;

J.

.

Hallam,

>The

Two Manners f

Louis-L6opold

Boilly

and French

Genre

Painting

n

Transition,?

he

Art

Bulletin,

ol.

63, 981, 18-633.

or

Boilly's

usiness

nterests

n a later

period

ee

S. L.

Siegfried,

>The

Artist s

Nomadic

Ca-

pitalist:

he

Case

of

Louis-L6opold

oilly,?

Art

His-

tory,

ol.

13,

December

1990,

516-541.

374

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3/15

i. Louis-L6opoldBoilly,La Lecturedu Bulletinde la GrandeArmee, 807.

The

Saint

ouis ArtMuseum.Mr. nd Mrs.

R.

Crosby

Kemper

through

he

CrosbyKemper

oundations

characterizations

estined

o awe his enemies

nd

assure

his followers.

xamples

re the

Coronation

of

the

Emperor

nd The

Baron

Gros's Battle

of

Eylau,

both of whichwere also shown

n

the

8o8

Salon. When

heoccasional cenes f domestic ife

are

depicted,

s for

example

he work of Martin

Drolling, hey

xhibit he table nvironmentnd

harmoniousnteriors f thebourgeoisie.During

the

fifteen

ears

hathe ruled

n

France,

Napoleon

held on to

his

power

by

almostcontinuouswar

with France's enemies nd he

mobilizedthe arts

to construct

self-image

f both nvincible ero

and

caring

uler.

His

centralized ontrol

over the media

predis-

posed

artists o

attempt

o

gain

recognition

nd

awards

n

the official xhibitions nown as the

salons

by

flattering

im.

Boilly

was a

politically

shrewd

painter,

who had

previously ainted

an

imageof the Triumph f Marat - the popular

Jacobin

hero

when he was at riskof

falling

ut

of favorwiththe

revolutionary

egime4.

he son

of a

carpenter

nd

baker's

daughter,

oilly

was a

4

M.

Marmottan,

e

peintre

.

Boilly,

aris

1913,

8ff.;

A.

Boime,

Art n an

Age of

Revolution,

hicago

1987,

457-458.

his

hesis

as

recently

ontested

y

Susan

Siegfried

ho

uggests

different

nterpretation

nd

amplifies

he ontext

nwhich

he

work

wasdone. ee

S.

L.

Siegfried,

>Reconsideration

u

>Marat>charming>Napoleon

decore

uatre

rtistesEmpire

franqaise,>practicalWomen,

ducation

f,?

His-

torical

ictionary fNapoleonic

rance,

o8-5II.

386

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15/15

was

a

common

practice

f

Boilly

to add animals

in

his

picture

o

complement

henarrative

motifs13.

The

Civil

Code

-

the Code

Napoleon

promulg-

ated

n

1804

-

declared

mastery

or hehead of

the

household and

accorded

nferior tatus

for

wo-

men.

The father

was

assigned

almost

despoiic

powerover thefamily.Womenhad no political

rights,

nd husbands

were bound to

carefor heir

wives'

needs.

Wives,

n

turn,

had to reside

with

theirhusbands

nd

could be forced

y

the

police

to return

home.

A wife owes

obedience to her

husband

ust

as a citizen

owes obedience

to

the

emperor.

Women's

place

was

in the

home,

where

they

wore everal ats:

wife, over,

nd

companion

to offer

dvice

and

listen;

nd

mother,

o

instill

virtues

nd raise children

orthe

progress

f the

nation.Napoleon imposedon French ocietyhis

view

that

women must

be

treated

s

irreponsible

minors

hroughout

heir ives.

He once told the

son

of

Madame

de

Stael

hat

>woman

hould

tick

to

knitting,governs

us as

a

father,

Documents

Louis Boilly's Reading of the XIth and XIIth Bulletins of the Grande Armée