The Card Sharp on the Boulevard

The Card Sharp on the Boulevard is an oil on panel genre painting by the French artist Louis-Léopold Boilly, from 1806. It is held in the collection of the National Gallery of Art, in Washington. It depicts a scene on the Boulevard du Temples in Napoleonic era Paris, with a conjuror or card sharp on the right, entertaining a crowd. A group of children and women seem to be vividly interested by the tricksters actions. The artist added a self-portrait of himself in a bicorne hat amongst the group of spectators. Boilly exhibited the painting at the Salon of 1808 at the Louvre, along with a pendant piece Young Savoyards Showing Their Marmot. It was also displayed at the Salon of 1814, which was hastily organised following the Bourbon Restoration.