Giovanni Boldini

In addition to painting portraits of important patrons who sat in his Paris studio, by the mid-1880s, Boldini turned to the objects within the space itself for inspiration.   In a number of oils, watercolors, and drawings, Boldini depicted a work in progress on his easel, often under review by a visitor— with brushes, paints, and miscellaneous furniture and decorative objects further crowding the composition.  A common presence in these paintings is a white plaster bust of a cardinal, also the subject of the present work. The bust was given to Boldini by Enrico Ridolfi, the director of the Royal Gallery of the Uffizi, in lieu of payment for his portrait completed by Boldini in 1892 (Barbara Guidi, Giovanni Boldini in Impressionist Paris, exh. cat., 2009, p. 180-2). While the bust appears in a number of Boldini’s compositions, it rarely stands in the same position or placement—and Boldini’s expressive brushwork and shifts in form and perspective vivify the inanimate object.  Though the bust of “il Cardinale” is mentioned in several of Boldini's letters (see: Piero Dini and Francesca Dini, Giovanni Boldini, 1842-1931, Catalogo Ragionato, Turin, 2002, vol. II, p. 141-2) and has been attributed to Gian Lorenzo Bernini (1598-1680) in works like Bust of a Cardinal by Bernini in the Artist’s Room (circa 1889, Gallerie d’Arte Moderna e Contemporanea, Museo Giovanni Boldini, Ferrara) the source of this identification has yet to be determined.  Rather, Boldini’s cardinal with his long hair and prominent nose more closely resembles one of the sculptures of Cardinal Leopoldo de' Medici (1617–1675) by Giovanni Battista Foggini (1652-1725) that was in the Louvre.