Auguste BOULARD (1825-1897) The puppet theatre

Auguste BOULARD 1825-1897

The man who critics would call "the last of the Romantics" began his studies in 1841 under the aegis of Léon Coignet in Paris, before moving to Amsterdam where he immersed himself in the Flemish masters such as Rubens and Van Dyck.

On his return to Paris, he frequented all the great artists of his generation: Millet, Delacroix, Baudelaire and others.
Boulard regularly took part in the Salons of his time, painting a range of subjects from still life to genre scenes...

In 1856, he frequented the painter Jules Dupré and the painters Daubigny, Daumier, Théodore Rousseau and Corot, who influenced much of his work.

His paintings can be found in many French museums, including the Musée d'Orsay.

The artist mastered the shades of brown, black and ochre he used so skilfully, playing on the chiaroscuro technique developed by Caravaggio and Goya. Like the Dutch painters, the painter brings light out of darkness.

In this way, his small street scenes, like ours, become the setting for a universal, romantic and poetic painting.