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The Sorrows of Love (painting)

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The Sorrows of Love
ArtistLouis-Léopold Boilly
Year1790
TypeOil on canvas, genre painting
Dimensions45 cm × 55 cm (18 in × 22 in)
LocationWallace Collection, London

The Sorrows of Love (French: Les Malheurs de l'amour) is a 1790 genre painting by the French artist Louis-Léopold Boilly.[1] [2] In the early stages of his career Boilly largely produced genre paintings and portraits before switching to the street scenes of Paris for which he is best known.[3]

It was one of eleven works Boilly produced for an aristocrat from Avignon Antoine Joseph François Xavier Calvet de Lapalun, all of which feature various stages of love. In this case a woman is left distraught when a servant of her former lover returns her portrait, signalling that their relationship is over.[4]

Today the painting is in the Wallace Collection in London, having been acquired by Marquess of Hertford in 1863.[5] Another painting in the series The Visit Returned is also in the Wallace Collection.[6]

References

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Bibliography

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  • Bailey, Colin B. The Age of Watteau, Chardin, and Fragonard: Masterpieces of French Genre Painting. Yale University Press, 2003.
  • Goodman, Dena. Becoming a Woman in the Age of Letters. Cornell University Press, 2009.
  • MacDonald, Heather Eleanor (ed.) French Art of the Eighteenth Century. Yale University Press, 2016.
  • Whitlum-Cooper, Francesca. Boilly: Scenes of Parisian Life. National Gallery Company, 2019.