Philip Boileau
Canadian, 1864–1917
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Philip Boileau was a Canadian-born Art Nouveau illustrator known for his watercolor and pastel drawings of Victorian-era women. His most famous piece, Peggy (1903), was modeled after his wife, the famed actress Emily Gilbert. Like the American artist Harrison Fisher, Boileau’s pieces appeared in magazines, on postcards, and porcelain. Born on June 7, 1863 in Quebec, Canada, he received most of his education in the United Kingdom as a young man, before moving to Baltimore, MD, in 1897. Having established himself as a portrait painter in both Baltimore and Philadelphia, Boileau moved to New York. His illustrations of dignified women became a part of popular culture and the moniker, “Boileau Girls”, became a colloquial term to describe women. The artist died at 53 on January 18, 1917 in Douglas Manor, NY.
