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A lady, supported by her confidante, mourns the end of an affair, as a servant returns her portrait and unopened love-letter. The subject is typical of the sentimental bourgeois genre scenes with which the artist first made his reputation. A label attached to its stretcher reveals that it formed part of an important early commission of gallant genre scenes painted for the Avignon collector, Calvet de Lapalun. Boilly was noted for his meticulous technique and 'The Sorrows of Love', in particular, is remarkable for the artist’s masterly use of colour in the rendering of the shot-silks of the costumes.

The Wallace Collection

London

Title

The Sorrows of Love

Date

1790

Medium

oil on canvas

Measurements

H 45 x W 55 cm

Accession number

P479

Acquisition method

acquired by Richard Seymour-Conway, 4th Marquess of Hertford, 1863; bequeathed to the nation by Lady Wallace, 1897

Work type

Painting

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The Wallace Collection

Hertford House, Manchester Square, London, Greater London W1U 3BN England

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