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Two Standing Figures (Study for A Game of Billiards)

c. 1807
(French, 1761–1845)
France, 19th century
black chalk with gray and brown-black chalk, with stumping, framing lines in brown-black chalk
Support: Brown (wove?) paper possibly discolored from blue, laid down on beige laid paper
Sheet: 31.2 x 26.6 cm (12 5/16 x 10 1/2 in.); Overall: 31.2 x 27.3 cm (12 5/16 x 10 3/4 in.)
Bequest of Muriel Butkin 2008.382
Location: not on view
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Description

Louis-Léopold Boilly made these two figure studies for his painting A Game of Billiards (see photo). In the final composition, the left figure from the study appears toward the right end of the billiard table, and the other figure appears at the left end. Boilly's genre scenes like A Game of Billiards-animated with a variety of participants-made him the premier chronicler of Parisian life from the Revolutionary to the Restoration periods. In the drawing, Boilly concentrated on the isolated figures, simply sketching in rudimentary lines for legs and the table and carefully examining light effects on the upper part of the men's suits.
Two Standing Figures (Study for A Game of Billiards)

Two Standing Figures (Study for A Game of Billiards)

c. 1807

Louis Léopold Boilly

(French, 1761–1845)
France, 19th century

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