Giovanni Boldini

The artist's studio, Paris, until 1931,
by descent to Emilia Cardona Boldini, Pistoia (Giovanni Boldini's wife);
Bottegantica, Bologna, 1999

Bologna, Galleria Marescalchi, Saette e carezze di un ironico libertino: Giovanni Boldini, disegni e acquerelli, 1980;
Bologna, Galleria Marescalchi, Il Genio di Boldini, 1988;
Bologna, Bottegantica, Giovanni Boldini: Il dinamismo straordinario delle linee, 1999 

Giorgio Ruggeri, Saette e carezze di un ironico libertino: Giovanni Boldini, disegni e acquerelli, Bologna, exh. cat., Galleria Marescalchi, Bologna, 1980, p. 87;  
Vito Doria, Il Genio di Boldini, exh. cat., Galleria Marescalchi, Bologna, 1988, p. 115;
Eugenio Riccòmini, Enzo Savoia, Giovanni Boldini: il dinamismo straordinario delle linee, exh. cat., Bologna, Bottegantica, 1999, p. 149;
Bianca Doria, I disegni di Giovanni Boldini. Catalogo generale, Bologna, 2011, n.p., no. 2321

Partially laid down. The work was probably at one time taped at the lower left and right corners, and remnants of the original sheet are still adhered to the mat with associated losses verso. There are remnants of old tape at upper left. Paper has discoloured around the edges and there are a few small nicks and tears to the lower margin. Black chalk remains strong and vibrant.
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Boldini was a compulsive draughtsman, and he left behind over two thousand graphic works –– from quick, nearly abstract sketches to more realized studies of people and objects.  Some drawings captured ideas for later works, while the majority were created for no other reason but for the pleasure of drawing, to capture, experiment and explore what was set before him.¹  As Paulette Howard Johnston, the daughter of Boldini’s friend and fellow artist Paul Césear Helleu remembered, Boldini “always kept a sketchbook in his pocket and if he did not have that, he would use a simple notebook with lined pages, or, if he not have that either, he would make little sketches on visiting cards or on the starched cuffs of his shirt” or, as with the present work, a page torn from a book by Henri Houssaye entitled la seconde abdication, published in 1911.^{2 1.} Richard Kendell, 'Drawing Paris: Boldini as a Draftsman in the 1870s', Giovanni Boldini in Impressionist Paris, exh. cat., Palazzo dei Diamanti, Ferrara; Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute, Williamstown, Massachusetts, 2009-2010, p. 69-72

^2. Francesca Dini, ed., Boldini, Helleu, Sem, Protagonisti e miti della Belle Epoque, Milan 2006, p. 37



We would like to thank the Boldini- De Nittis- Zandomeneghi Archives for kindly confirming the authenticity of this lot, which is referenced under Archiving Certificate n. 418674 issued on December 18, 2017. 

We would like to thank Francesca Dini for kindly authenticating this lot which will be included in the appendix to the Boldini catalogue raisonné currently in preparation.