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Two Standing Figures (Study for A Game of Billiards)
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Two Standing Figures (Study for A Game of Billiards)

Louis Léopold Boilly (French, 1761–1845), artist · c. 1807 · black chalk with gray and brown-black chalk, with stumping, framing lines in brown-black chalk

From the collection of Cleveland Museum of Art. Free to download, adapt and use — no permission needed.

About this work

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.

Cleveland Museum of Art’s own description
Credit lineTwo Standing Figures (Study for A Game of Billiards), c. 1807. Louis Léopold Boilly (French, 1761–1845). Black chalk with gray and brown-black chalk, with stumping, framing lines in brown-black chalk; 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.). The Cleveland Museum of Art, Bequest of Muriel Butkin, 2008.382

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