Louis Boilly was born in a part of Northern France with a strong Flemish influence. In 1785, he settled in Paris, where he made his reputation as a painter of small-scale portraits and genre scenes of contemporary city life. During the Reign of Terror he came under suspicion because of the alleged frivolity of his subjects; only the discovery at his home of drawings for a painting of The Triumph of Marat (c.1794; Versailles) saved him from prison, or worse.

He continued his very productive career (he claimed to have executed 5,000 portraits) recording fashionable Parisian life through the Revolution, the Directory, the Empire, and on into the Restoration period. Among his best-known works is the Gathering of Artists in Isa...