Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Boit, Charles
BOIT, CHARLES (d. 1726?), enamel painter, was born at Stockholm. His father was a Frenchman. He learned the business of a jeweller, and proposed, upon coming to England, to follow that avocation, but was 'upon so low a foot' that he seems to have lacked the wherewithal to establish a business, and was forced to travel about the country teaching drawing. He engaged the affections of one of his pupils, but, the affair being unhappily discovered before the marriage had been solemnised, Boit, by some high-handed perversion of justice, was thrown into prison.
He spent the two years of his confinement in learning the art of enamelling. Leaving prison, he established himself in London, and in the practice of his new art soon grew to celebrity. 'His prices,' says Walpole, 'are not to be believed,' He received a commission to paint 'a large plate of the Queen, Prince George, the principal officers and ladies of the court, and Victory, introducing the Duke of Marlborough and Prince Eugene; France and Bavaria prostrate upon the ground, &c., &c.' The size of the plate was to be from 22 to 24 inches high by 10 to 18 inches wide. For this modest fancy Boit obtained an advance of 1,000l. and made extensive preparations for the work. In these, it is said, he wasted between seven and eight hundred pounds. Meanwhile the prince died, and the work was stopped for some time. Boit, however, secured a further advance of 700l. and proceeded. In consequence of the revolution at court he was ordered to displace the Marlboroughs, and to introduce figures of 'Peace and Ormond, instead of Victory and Churchill.' After this nothing prospered with him. Prince Eugene refused to sit, the queen died, Boit incontinently ran into debt. He fled to France, changed his religion, got a pension of 250l. per annum, and was greatly admired. He died suddenly at Paris about Christmas 1726. His principal enamel is one of the imperial family of Austria, preserved at Vienna; it is on gold, and is 18 inches high by 12 inches wide. Another of considerable size represented Queen Anne sitting with Prince George standing by her. Horace Walpole possessed a copy by him of Luca Giordano's 'Venus, Cupid, Satyr, and Nymphs,' and also 'a fine head' of Admiral Churchill. He mentions that Miss Reade, the artist, had a 'very fine head' of Boit's own daughter, enamelled by him from a picture of Dahl.
[Walpole's Anecdotes of Painters, ii. 633-5; Fiorillo's Geschichte der zeichenden Künste, v. 622.]