Giovanni Boldini

Celia Tobin Clark, Hillsborough, California (acquired directly from the artist in 1904)
Thence by descent

San Francisco, California Palace of the Legion of Honor, Sargent and Boldini, October 24- November 29, 1959, no. 36 (lent by Celia Tobin Clark)

Ettore Camesasca, ed., L'opera completa di Boldini, Milan, 1970, p. 118-9
Piero Dini and Francesca Dini, Giovanni Boldini 1842-1931, Catalogo Ragionato, Turin, 2002, vol. III, p. 442, no. 834, illustrated p. 443
Tiziano Panconi, Giovanni Boldini, l'opera completa, Florence, 2002, p. 446

This condition report was kindly provided by Simon Parkes Art Conservation, Inc.: This work is in perfect condition. The canvas is still on its original stretcher. The paint layer is clean and stable. There is no cracking that is disturbing. There are no retouches. The painting should be hung in its current state.
"This lot is offered for sale subject to Sotheby's Conditions of Business, which are available on request and printed in Sotheby's sale catalogues. The independent reports contained in this document are provided for prospective bidders' information only and without warranty by Sotheby's or the Seller."

In 1892, upon Boldini’s invitation to paint his self-portrait to hang among other artists’ likenesses in the Uffizi’s Vasari Corridor, he wrote to a friend “I will go to Florence to paint the portrait.  I’ll do it on the spot in three or four sittings, and celebrity will be achieved” (Giovanni Boldini to Cristiano Banti, February 29, 1892, as translated and quoted in Sarah Lees, “Giovanni Boldini in Impressionist Paris,” Giovanni Boldini in Impressionist Paris, exh. cat., 2010, p. 58).   Indeed, through the Belle Époque, the prosperous, charmed years that opened the twentieth century, Boldini was a premiere portraitist of the beau monde.   Since the late 1880s, his ability to match a flattering likeness with a dynamic, colorful bravura style made his Paris studio a destination of social necessity for cosmopolitan beauties and aspiring ladies of the world. As Boldini’s reputation grew, his subjects were increasingly drawn from the social elite, and many of his nearly life-sized full-length portraits were exhibited in virtually every important international exhibition, attracting patrons throughout Europe and the United States. 

Celia Tobin Clark (1874-1965) came from one of San Francisco’s founding families, who opened and grew its Hibernia Bank and were patrons of numerous civic causes.  In 1901, Celia Tobin married the multi-millionaire Charles W. Clark (1871-1933), son of William A. Clark, the Montana copper magnate and United States Senator, and her portrait was painted thereafter, likely in honor of the occasion. Despite the couples’ wealth, their wedding was, as reported by The San Francisco Call, “wholly without ostentation and every feature was marked with the upmost simplicity.  This was in perfect keeping with Miss Celia Tobin’s quiet tastes (“Miss Celia Tobin Weds C. W. Clark, the Son of Montana Millionaire,” The San Francisco Call, August 5, 1901, p. 6).  While known as charming and popular, Celia Tobin Clark was also somewhat shy, and chose her closest friends with care.  She was known as a skilled equestrienne who rode “as well as her brothers,” but was also an accomplished pianist remembered for her sensitive interpretations of “famous composers” (“Miss Celia Tobin Weds,” p. 6).  Her graceful and refined style are immediately evident in Boldini’s portrait.  Her athleticism is suggested in Boldini’s elongation of her form (a hallmark of his portrait style), a lavender bow cinching swirls of shimmering fabric in subtly shifting shades of mauve, while a matching, voluminous cape spills across two fauteuils, the white fur lining the perfect backdrop to display a sparkling diamond bracelet and an opal and ruby ring.  Contrasted with more rapidly applied areas of paint elsewhere in the composition, Boldini reserves a higher degree of finish to capture Celia Tobin Clark’s serene expression, its smooth surfaces suggesting her sensitivity as she looks away from the viewer.  

Upon its completion in 1904, Boldini invited Celia Tobin Clark to his Paris studio at 41 Boulevard Berthier to view her “magnificent portrait, with nothing to change” (fig. 1).  Once again, the artist had created a portrait that, in its mix of abstract, vigorously applied elements and smoothly applied paint, not only captured the personality and style of the sitter but his own singular vision.  Like many of his large portraits, Celia Tobin Clark was perfectly suited to serve as part of the patron’s interior design. By 1931 the portrait hung in Celia Tobin Clark’s “House-on-Hill” built in Hillsborough, California.  Aptly named, as it overlooks San Francisco’s Lower Bay, House-on-Hill was designed by David Adler (1882-1949) the preeminent architect of American “country houses” in the early twentieth century.  After considering another architect who proposed a French chateau, Clark found Adler the perfect partner to create an English-style house that would disappear into the surrounding 400 acres — just like the homes she admired in her travels to the Cotswolds —  both affording her privacy and surrounding her with nature. The vast interior was designed with Jacobean oak paneling, carved wood reliefs, pegged parquetry from a castle in France, and antique pine paneling, among a host of other well-considered details, many of which were personally sourced and approved herself.  In the music room, Boldini’s portrait was hung between evenly spaced Corinthian columns and below a high plaster ceiling patterned with rosettes, garlands, and musical instruments;  it overlooked numerous recitals by world famous ensembles, including the Budapest Quartet, attended by as many as 100 guests (fig 2.) Celia Tobin Clark was the consummate hostess known for the most delicious dinner parties and memorable entertainments; she was so generous that she even provided guests a tank of gasoline and a car-wash while they enjoyed an evening’s festivities (Stephen M. Salny, The Country Houses of David Adler, New York, 2001, p. 111-20).  Throughout her life she celebrated nature, the arts, and gracious living, her elegant portrait by Boldini a fitting, lasting legacy.