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The Arcades at the Palais-Royal

A work made of pen and black ink, and brush and gray wash, with gray gouache, over black chalk, on ivory laid paper.
CC0 Public Domain Designation

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  • A work made of pen and black ink, and brush and gray wash, with gray gouache, over black chalk, on ivory laid paper.

Date:

c. 1804

Artist:

Louis Léopold Boilly
French, 1761-1845

About this artwork

This remarkably frank image flouted the norms of acceptable subject matter. Here, Boilly depicted the prostitutes—and the men who solicited them—who gathered in the arcade of the Palais-Royal in Paris. Better known for his charming genre paintings, Boilly was denounced in 1793 by a French revolutionary tribunal for painting pictures “of revolting obscenity to republican morals.” He survived and even in 1804, under the Napoleonic government’s somewhat looser standards, he was pushing the boundaries of propriety.

Status

Currently Off View

Department

Prints and Drawings

Artist

Louis-Léopold Boilly

Title

The Arcades at the Palais-Royal

Place

France (Artist's nationality:)

Date  Dates are not always precisely known, but the Art Institute strives to present this information as consistently and legibly as possible. Dates may be represented as a range that spans decades, centuries, dynasties, or periods and may include qualifiers such as c. (circa) or BCE.

1761–1804

Medium

Pen and black ink, and brush and gray wash, with gray gouache, over black chalk, on ivory laid paper

Dimensions

36.5 × 45.7 cm (14 3/8 × 18 in.)

Credit Line

Worcester Sketch Fund

Reference Number

1963.558

IIIF Manifest  The International Image Interoperability Framework (IIIF) represents a set of open standards that enables rich access to digital media from libraries, archives, museums, and other cultural institutions around the world.

Learn more.

https://api.artic.edu/api/v1/artworks/17962/manifest.json

Extended information about this artwork

Object information is a work in progress and may be updated as new research findings emerge. To help improve this record, please email . Information about image downloads and licensing is available here.

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