The Unburdened Musician (Primary Title)
Le sommeil trompeur (Former Title)
The Unburdened Musician (formerly titled Le Sommeil trompeur) (Former Title)
Louis-Léopold Boilly, French, 1761 - 1845 (Artist)
Boilly’s charming domestic scene captures the persistence of the theatrical character of bourgeois culture
during the earliest period of the French Revolution. The
viewer is invited to witness an intimate and humorous
episode from the daily life of a young musician. Seated,
he leans on a pianoforte with his eyes closed and his
hand pressed to his forehead, as though overcome by
the distress of creative exhaustion. A young woman has
entered through the doorway. She smiles affectionately,
apparently amused by her lover’s melodramatic
temperament, as she attempts to slip a bound volume
from beneath his arm. Scenes of messengers, servants,
or lovers intruding into a private space constitute
a touchstone of Dutch genre painting, although the
drama that played out between the anonymous figures
in those paintings usually had heavily moralistic
overtones. In contrast, this lady’s attempt to ease her
lover’s anguish embodies the lighthearted pleasure and
playful eroticism that defined Boilly’s own epoch.
Signed in lower right: L Boilly
The Jordan and Thomas A. Saunders III Collection
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