Giovanni Boldini

With Goupil et Cie, Paris, by 1877 (commissioned directly from the artist);

Private collection, Montreal;

Anonymous sale, New York, Christie's, 22 May 1997, lot 136;

Private collection, Hong Kong;

From whom acquired by the present owner.

New York, Stair Sainty Matthiesen, Three Italian Friends of the Impressionists, 14 March-20 April, 1984, no. 1.

P. Dini and F. Dini, Boldini 1842-1931. Catalogo ragionato, Turin, London, Venice 2002, vol. III, tome I, pp. 144, 145, cat. no. 248, reproduced.

This jewel-like composition is one of several intimately scaled interior scenes commissioned by Adolphe Goupil, Boldini's primary dealer, for a predominately American market and probably dates to the artist's first years in Paris, having moved to the French from Italy capital in 1871. The young woman seen here in his studio playing with a mannequin is likely his lover, Berthe, who on occasion modeled for the artist. Upon his arrival in Paris, he wrote to his friend and fellow artist, Cristiano Banti, "I cannot come to visit you in Florence. I am too busy I have a beautiful studio with all the comforts of home. I am working hard and enjoying myself," and, on Berthe, that she "is too beautiful, too good, too lovable to leave for even a moment" (see Piero Dini and Francesca Dini, Giovanni Boldini, Turin, 2002, vol. II, p. 38). In another letter that same year, he references a painting presumably of Berthe and perhaps the present work in which he was "playfully sketching a figure with my lover," (see Piero Dini and Francesca Dini, Giovanni Boldini, Turin, 2002, vol. II, p. 39). Boldini's determined and dashing brushwork, dynamic arrangement of forms, and discerning attention to detail--punctuated by bursts of color--exude the confidence, exhilaration and elegance of a passionate young artist, in love and in pursuit of success.