Charles Boit
Encyclopedia
Charles Boit was a Swedish painter in vitreous enamel
s who mostly worked in England, Austria and France.
Boit was born in a Huguenot
family in Stockholm, the son of a merchant who was also master of the royal indoor tennis court
. He became a goldsmith
's apprentice at the age of fifteen. After qualifying as a journeyman
in 1682, he went to Paris for three months before returning to Sweden, settling in Gothenburg
and getting married. According to Swedish art historian Gunnar W. Lundberg, he probably studied in Sweden with Pierre Signac, who had come from France in the mid-17th century and served as court enameller to Queen Christina.
He first travelled to England in 1687. Lack of means forced Boit to take a position as a drawing master for children in the country; according to a story retold in the Anecdotes of Painting in England of Horace Walpole, based on the notes of George Vertue
, he "engaged one of the scholars, a gentleman's daughter, to marry him, but the affair being discovered, Boit was thrown into prison". According to the Anecdotes, Boit remained in confinement for two years. Once free, he was able to establish himself as an enameller in London, aided by his countryman, the popular Swedish-born portrait painter Michael Dahl
, to whom he probably owed a large part of his immediate and considerable success as a painter of miniature portraits. Boit was appointed court enameller to William III
in March 1696.
In 1699 Boit left England for Holland and Düsseldorf, where he produced work for the family of the Elector Palatine, and continued to Vienna. He painted a very large enamel portrait of Emperor Leopold
and his family (1703) for which he is said to have received 6,000 ducats or 20,000 florins. The painting, 38 x 46 cm in size and now in the Kunsthistorisches Museum
(Vienna), is said to have cracked after one of the Imperial princes sat down on it.
Boit returned to England in 1704, and was to continue in his path of success for a few more years. Walpole (who does not mention the excursion to the continent) remarks that Boit's prices "are not to be believed". He is said to have been paid 30 guinea
s for a copy of Godfrey Kneller
's portrait of Colonel John Seymour, "for a lady's head, not larger, double that sum, and for a few plates 500 l
." "If this appears enormous", writes Walpole, introducing his next example of Boit's extraordinary prices, "what will the reader think of the following anecdote?" This enamel, which was to be even larger than the one of the Imperial family, concerned a commission on which he worked for many years on behalf of Queen Anne
and Prince George, an allegory over the victory at Blenheim
.
Another large enamel, showing Queen Anne sitting and Prince George standing, is mentioned by Walpole and is in the Royal Collection
.
According to Vertue, Boit "liv'd at large". At some point in 1714 or 1715, after the death of Queen Anne, his failed project for her caught up with him; asked to return the money he had been advanced, he fled to France to avoid imprisonment in the Marshalsea. He had cultivated his French contacts in the previous years and had painted a portrait (now in the Louvre
) of the duc d'Aumont, the French ambassador to London, dressed in a suit of armour borrowed for the occasion from the collections of the Tower
.
In Paris, Boit came under the protection of Aumont and the Regent, Philip of Orléans
, to whom he gave lessons in enamel painting. Despite being a Protestant, he was elected an agrée of the Académie Royale on 6 February 1717. In August 1717, the duc d'Aumont presented him to Louis XV
at a royal reception, offering him the opportunity in turn to present the young monarch with an enamel portrait he had painted.
He spent some time in 1719-1720 working for Augustus of Saxony
in Dresden
, but lived the rest of his life in Paris. He died there on 6 February 1727, a widower and again deeply in debt, survived by his three children from his second marriage. By the time of his death, he appears to have converted to the Catholic Church and was interred at the Saint Sulpice cemetery.
Oil and enamel portraits of Boit are mentioned in the inventory made after the death of his wife, but none is known to exist today, only an engraving
by Alexander Bannerman that was included in Walpole's Anecdotes.
Boit's students in England included John Milward, Otto Frederick Peterson and Christian Friedrich Zincke
. Martin van Meytens
studied enamel painting with Boit in Paris in 1717 and later became a successful painter to the imperial court in Vienna.
Vitreous enamel
Vitreous enamel, also porcelain enamel in U.S. English, is a material made by fusing powdered glass to a substrate by firing, usually between 750 and 850 °C...
s who mostly worked in England, Austria and France.
Boit was born in a Huguenot
Huguenot
The Huguenots were members of the Protestant Reformed Church of France during the 16th and 17th centuries. Since the 17th century, people who formerly would have been called Huguenots have instead simply been called French Protestants, a title suggested by their German co-religionists, the...
family in Stockholm, the son of a merchant who was also master of the royal indoor tennis court
Real tennis
Real tennis – one of several games sometimes called "the sport of kings" – is the original indoor racquet sport from which the modern game of lawn tennis , is descended...
. He became a goldsmith
Goldsmith
A goldsmith is a metalworker who specializes in working with gold and other precious metals. Since ancient times the techniques of a goldsmith have evolved very little in order to produce items of jewelry of quality standards. In modern times actual goldsmiths are rare...
's apprentice at the age of fifteen. After qualifying as a journeyman
Journeyman
A journeyman is someone who completed an apprenticeship and was fully educated in a trade or craft, but not yet a master. To become a master, a journeyman had to submit a master work piece to a guild for evaluation and be admitted to the guild as a master....
in 1682, he went to Paris for three months before returning to Sweden, settling in Gothenburg
Gothenburg
Gothenburg is the second-largest city in Sweden and the fifth-largest in the Nordic countries. Situated on the west coast of Sweden, the city proper has a population of 519,399, with 549,839 in the urban area and total of 937,015 inhabitants in the metropolitan area...
and getting married. According to Swedish art historian Gunnar W. Lundberg, he probably studied in Sweden with Pierre Signac, who had come from France in the mid-17th century and served as court enameller to Queen Christina.
He first travelled to England in 1687. Lack of means forced Boit to take a position as a drawing master for children in the country; according to a story retold in the Anecdotes of Painting in England of Horace Walpole, based on the notes of George Vertue
George Vertue
George Vertue was an English engraver and antiquary, whose notebooks on British art of the first half of the 18th century are a valuable source for the period.-Life:...
, he "engaged one of the scholars, a gentleman's daughter, to marry him, but the affair being discovered, Boit was thrown into prison". According to the Anecdotes, Boit remained in confinement for two years. Once free, he was able to establish himself as an enameller in London, aided by his countryman, the popular Swedish-born portrait painter Michael Dahl
Michael Dahl
Michael Dahl was a Swedish portrait painter, who lived and worked in London for the larger part of his life....
, to whom he probably owed a large part of his immediate and considerable success as a painter of miniature portraits. Boit was appointed court enameller to William III
William III of England
William III & II was a sovereign Prince of Orange of the House of Orange-Nassau by birth. From 1672 he governed as Stadtholder William III of Orange over Holland, Zeeland, Utrecht, Guelders, and Overijssel of the Dutch Republic. From 1689 he reigned as William III over England and Ireland...
in March 1696.
In 1699 Boit left England for Holland and Düsseldorf, where he produced work for the family of the Elector Palatine, and continued to Vienna. He painted a very large enamel portrait of Emperor Leopold
Leopold I, Holy Roman Emperor
| style="float:right;" | Leopold I was a Holy Roman Emperor, King of Hungary and King of Bohemia. A member of the Habsburg family, he was the second son of Emperor Ferdinand III and his first wife, Maria Anna of Spain. His maternal grandparents were Philip III of Spain and Margaret of Austria...
and his family (1703) for which he is said to have received 6,000 ducats or 20,000 florins. The painting, 38 x 46 cm in size and now in the Kunsthistorisches Museum
Kunsthistorisches Museum
The Kunsthistorisches Museum is an art museum in Vienna, Austria. Housed in its festive palatial building on Ringstraße, it is crowned with an octagonal dome...
(Vienna), is said to have cracked after one of the Imperial princes sat down on it.
Boit returned to England in 1704, and was to continue in his path of success for a few more years. Walpole (who does not mention the excursion to the continent) remarks that Boit's prices "are not to be believed". He is said to have been paid 30 guinea
Guinea
Guinea , officially the Republic of Guinea , is a country in West Africa. Formerly known as French Guinea , it is today sometimes called Guinea-Conakry to distinguish it from its neighbour Guinea-Bissau. Guinea is divided into eight administrative regions and subdivided into thirty-three prefectures...
s for a copy of Godfrey Kneller
Godfrey Kneller
Sir Godfrey Kneller, 1st Baronet was the leading portrait painter in England during the late 17th and early 18th centuries, and was court painter to British monarchs from Charles II to George I...
's portrait of Colonel John Seymour, "for a lady's head, not larger, double that sum, and for a few plates 500 l
Pound sterling
The pound sterling , commonly called the pound, is the official currency of the United Kingdom, its Crown Dependencies and the British Overseas Territories of South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands, British Antarctic Territory and Tristan da Cunha. It is subdivided into 100 pence...
." "If this appears enormous", writes Walpole, introducing his next example of Boit's extraordinary prices, "what will the reader think of the following anecdote?" This enamel, which was to be even larger than the one of the Imperial family, concerned a commission on which he worked for many years on behalf of Queen Anne
Anne of Great Britain
Anne ascended the thrones of England, Scotland and Ireland on 8 March 1702. On 1 May 1707, under the Act of Union, two of her realms, England and Scotland, were united as a single sovereign state, the Kingdom of Great Britain.Anne's Catholic father, James II and VII, was deposed during the...
and Prince George, an allegory over the victory at Blenheim
Battle of Blenheim
The Battle of Blenheim , fought on 13 August 1704, was a major battle of the War of the Spanish Succession. Louis XIV of France sought to knock Emperor Leopold out of the war by seizing Vienna, the Habsburg capital, and gain a favourable peace settlement...
.
Another large enamel, showing Queen Anne sitting and Prince George standing, is mentioned by Walpole and is in the Royal Collection
Royal Collection
The Royal Collection is the art collection of the British Royal Family. It is property of the monarch as sovereign, but is held in trust for her successors and the nation. It contains over 7,000 paintings, 40,000 watercolours and drawings, and about 150,000 old master prints, as well as historical...
.
According to Vertue, Boit "liv'd at large". At some point in 1714 or 1715, after the death of Queen Anne, his failed project for her caught up with him; asked to return the money he had been advanced, he fled to France to avoid imprisonment in the Marshalsea. He had cultivated his French contacts in the previous years and had painted a portrait (now in the Louvre
Louvre
The Musée du Louvre – in English, the Louvre Museum or simply the Louvre – is one of the world's largest museums, the most visited art museum in the world and a historic monument. A central landmark of Paris, it is located on the Right Bank of the Seine in the 1st arrondissement...
) of the duc d'Aumont, the French ambassador to London, dressed in a suit of armour borrowed for the occasion from the collections of the Tower
Tower of London
Her Majesty's Royal Palace and Fortress, more commonly known as the Tower of London, is a historic castle on the north bank of the River Thames in central London, England. It lies within the London Borough of Tower Hamlets, separated from the eastern edge of the City of London by the open space...
.
In Paris, Boit came under the protection of Aumont and the Regent, Philip of Orléans
Philippe II, Duke of Orléans
Philippe d'Orléans was a member of the royal family of France and served as Regent of the Kingdom from 1715 to 1723. Born at his father's palace at Saint-Cloud, he was known from birth under the title of Duke of Chartres...
, to whom he gave lessons in enamel painting. Despite being a Protestant, he was elected an agrée of the Académie Royale on 6 February 1717. In August 1717, the duc d'Aumont presented him to Louis XV
Louis XV of France
Louis XV was a Bourbon monarch who ruled as King of France and of Navarre from 1 September 1715 until his death. He succeeded his great-grandfather at the age of five, his first cousin Philippe II, Duke of Orléans, served as Regent of the kingdom until Louis's majority in 1723...
at a royal reception, offering him the opportunity in turn to present the young monarch with an enamel portrait he had painted.
He spent some time in 1719-1720 working for Augustus of Saxony
Augustus II the Strong
Frederick Augustus I or Augustus II the Strong was Elector of Saxony and King of Poland and Grand Duke of Lithuania ....
in Dresden
Dresden
Dresden is the capital city of the Free State of Saxony in Germany. It is situated in a valley on the River Elbe, near the Czech border. The Dresden conurbation is part of the Saxon Triangle metropolitan area....
, but lived the rest of his life in Paris. He died there on 6 February 1727, a widower and again deeply in debt, survived by his three children from his second marriage. By the time of his death, he appears to have converted to the Catholic Church and was interred at the Saint Sulpice cemetery.
Oil and enamel portraits of Boit are mentioned in the inventory made after the death of his wife, but none is known to exist today, only an engraving
Engraving
Engraving is the practice of incising a design on to a hard, usually flat surface, by cutting grooves into it. The result may be a decorated object in itself, as when silver, gold, steel, or glass are engraved, or may provide an intaglio printing plate, of copper or another metal, for printing...
by Alexander Bannerman that was included in Walpole's Anecdotes.
Boit's students in England included John Milward, Otto Frederick Peterson and Christian Friedrich Zincke
Christian Friedrich Zincke
Christian Friedrich Zincke was a German miniature painter active in England in the 18th century.-Life:He was born in Dresden and died in London. He apprenticed his father and also studied painting. In 1706 he came to London to work at Charles Boit's studio, and when Boit left for France 8 years...
. Martin van Meytens
Martin van Meytens
Martin van Meytens was a Swedish-Austrian painter who painted members of the royal Court of Austria such as Marie Antoinette, Maria Theresa of Austria, Francis I, Holy Roman Emperor, the Emperor's family and others...
studied enamel painting with Boit in Paris in 1717 and later became a successful painter to the imperial court in Vienna.