The Dead Mouse

The painting illustrates Boilly's tight and polished painterly technique, reminiscent of the Dutch seventeenth-century fijnschilders (literally 'fine painters') such as Gerrit Dou. The latter were extremely fashionable in France during the late eighteenth century.

The intrusion of a mouse into the safe enclosure of the domestic sphere serves as a pretext for the emotional embrace between a mother and her son.

The mother and little boy recur in other works by the artist. The velvet red chair was likely a studio prop; it appears in Boilly's 'Sorrows of Love', also in the Wallace Collection (P479).

The conservation of 'The Dead Mouse' was made possible in 2018 by the generous support of Étienne Bréton/Saint Honore Art Consulting and Pascal Zuber Art Conseil.