Louis Philippe Boitard

Pen and brown ink and grey wash on laid paper partially watermarked with the Strasburg Lily, the backing paper numbered 8, inscribed on reverse of backing paper by L.G.Duke: D938 D/L.P. Boitard/LGD and numbered 4 in ink in another hand

19 x 12.7 cm.; 7 ½ × 5 inches

Provenance
Colnaghi (part of an album of 65 drawings by Boitard);
Leonard G. Duke (1890-1971);
Squire Gallery, purchased from the above March 1948;
Arnold Fellows, no. 72;
Bequeathed by him to Queen Mary's Grammar School, Walsall;
Sold by a charitable trust, 2023

The artist was an engraver, designer and illustrator from Paris who lived most of his life in London. He was the son of designer François Boitard (1667-1719).

A distinctive line and a sense of humor characterises his work which often features mildly satirical drawings of ordinary people.

This drawing comes from an album of 65 works by the artist once owned by Leonard G. Duke, the eminent collector, who bought it from Colnaghi and split it up.

Arnold Fellows was a pupil at Queen Mary's Grammar School, Walsall, between 1911 and 1917. He became a master of the school for a brief period, before moving to spend the remainder of his life as a teacher at Chigwell School in Essex. Fellows devoted much of his life to collecting art, notably works on paper, and eventually donated his entire collection to his old school. He was the author of The wayfarer's companion : England's history in her buildings and countryside, published by Oxford University Press, 1937.