An elegant couple standing at the entrance of a palace
Oil on canvas : 60,2 X 73,2 cm
Unsigned
Frame : 71,1 X 83,4 cm
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In short
Not that many paintings are known by Michel Boyer. He is best known for his still lifes with musical instruments, but he also painted a few palace views, such as ours.
Between 1708 and 1715 he was the architectural painter for the Gobelins Manufactory that produced in Paris tapestries for the royal court.
From 1715 until 1720 he was court painter, also in Paris, of Philippe d’Orléans,the Regent of the future King Louis XV.
About Michel Boyer
French painter
Le Puy-en-Velay 1667/68 – 1724 Paris
Michel Boyer is a rare and interesting French painter, who specialised in still lifes of musical instruments (two are at the Louvre) and (even rarer) in Italianate architectural scenes.
Pupil of his father, Jean Boyer.
During his youth he had travelled through Italy. In 1689 he was documented in Rome.
Boyer was admitted June 26th 1700 at the Royal Academy of Painting and Sculpture in Paris. The 30th April 1701 he presented his reception piece as an architectural painter.
In 1708 Boyer succeeded to Michel II Corneille (1642 – 1708) as architectural painter for the Manufacture des Gobelins in Paris. The Gobelins Manufactory supplied tapestries to the French royal court.
Boyer held this function until 1715, the very year that King Louis XIV died.
In 1715 he became a court painter for Philippe d’Orléans, Regent for the then 5 year old, future King Louis XV. Boyer held that function at the Royal Palace in Paris until 1720. Louis XV was crowned king in 1722 at the age of 12.
The other rare architectural scenes of Boyer all have larger dimensions, our painting is smaller. The Cabinet of Drawings of the Louvre holds two fictitious Classical palace views by our artist, dating from circa 1710.
The Musée Auguste Grasset in Varzy (between Sancerre and Auxerre) has two large architectural scenes:
- A harbour with the loggia of a palace at right at sunset
- People having a meal in an architectural setting.
It would seem that Boyer did not paint himself the figures in his architectural scenes. These would have been painted by François Lemoyne, Jean-Baptist Pater or Jean Raoux. I would not go as far to pretend that one of these masters painted the staffage in our painting.
Why should you buy this painting?
Because, now that the painting has been relined, cleaned and restored, it has recovered its grand Rococo charm.