The Arcades at the Palais-Royal
c. 1804
Medium
Pen and black ink, and brush and gray wash, with gray gouache, over black chalk, on ivory laid paper
Dimensions
36.5 × 45.7 cm (14 3/8 × 18 in.)
Classification
ink or chalk wash
Department
Prints and Drawings
Museum
Art Institute of Chicago
Accession Number
17962
Rights
Public Domain
About this artwork
This remarkably frank image flouted the norms of acceptable subject matter. Here, Boilly depicted the prostitutes—and the men who solicited them—who gathered in the arcade of the Palais-Royal in Paris. Better known for his charming genre paintings, Boilly was denounced in 1793 by a French revolutionary tribunal for painting pictures “of revolting obscenity to republican morals.” He survived and even in 1804, under the Napoleonic government’s somewhat looser standards, he was pushing the boundari...