Tuesday, June 11, 2013

The Card Sharp on the Boulevard (1806)

Louis-Leopold Boilly: The Card Sharp on the Boulevard

Here is another of Boilly's great genre scenes.  A great deal is going on in this picture, as in most of Boilly's canvases: the main figure of a huckster (the "card sharp") at the right spinning his web for a crowd of onlookers (no doubt seeking to separate them from their money), while at the left a prosperous looking gentleman is simultaneously propositioned by a prostitute and having his pocket picked by a young ne'er-do-well. Behind all of them are other people going about their business; a pastry shop is visible at rear left ("Patissier").

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