Louis-Léopold BOILLY (La Bassée 1761 - 1845 Paris) - Lot 247

Louis-Léopold BOILLY (La Bassée 1761 - 1845 Paris) Portrait of Claude Godard d'Aucour de Saint-Just (1768-1808) emerging from a theater box Oil on panel 27 x 18.5 cm. Related work : L.L. Boilly, Portrait en pied de Claude Godard d'Aucour de Saint-Just, oil on canvas, 56 x 46 cm, Lille, Palais des Beaux-Arts, inv. P1949. Bibliography: - Louis-Léopold Boilly : peintre, dessinateur et lithographe, Henri Harrisse, 1898, p. 156, n°808, as "le baron de Saint-Just, 22 x 16 cm., auteur dramatique 1769-1828". - Louis-Léopold Boilly (1761-1845) - Le peintre de la société parisienne de Louis XVI à Louis-Philippe, Étienne Bréton and Pascal Zuber, 2019, ed. Arthena. Claude Godard d'Aucour, baron de Saint-Just (1768-1808), was the son of Claude Godard d'Aucour, marquis de Plancy (1716-1795), fermier général and then receiver of finances in Alençon, and a lesser-talented librettist. His son, on the other hand, enjoyed greater success. He wrote several opera-comique librettos for François-Adrien Boieldieu, including Le Calife de Bagdad and Jean de Paris. Boieldieu was also a friend and client of painter Louis-Léopold Boilly. We know of another full-length portrait of the Baron, with his wife Marie-Élizabeth Groignard, pendant, both probably depicted in the grounds of Château de Villers-Saint-Paul (Lille, Palais des Beaux-Arts, inv. P1949, P.1950). Our portrait is known only from a vague mention in Henri Harisse's first catalog raisonné, published in 1898. It seems to depict the model in his favorite environment: the world of show business. We would like to thank Mr. Bréton for confirming the attribution of our painting after a visual examination in October 2025.