Thursday, May 9, 2013

Arrival of a Stagecoach (1803)

Louis-Léopold Boilly: The Arrival of a Stagecoach in the Courtyard of the Messageries

Boilly's painting here is a wonderful slice of life. People of all stations of life are shown "rubbing shoulders" in this scene set in the courtyard of the Messageries in Rue Montmartre (now Rue Notre-Dame-des-Victoires), which was "Grand Central Station" for stagecoach traffic in Paris in the early 1800s. The painting emphasizes the sentimentality of family feeling in the central group: a man (Boilly's friend, the painter Guillon-Lethière) kissing his wife, with other family members and perhaps servants as well gathered around.

More about this painting is at the Louvre web site.

No comments:

Post a Comment