Giovanni Boldini

Atelier Boldini

Collezione Piceni, Milan

Asta Finarte, Milan, 1967

Giovanni Boldini, edited by G. Mascherpa, Finarte, Milan 1967, n. 33, p. 23, tav. XXXII.

Piero Dini and Francesca Dini, Giovanni Boldini, 1842-1931, catalogo ragionato, Turin, 2002, vol. III. tome II., p. 556, n. 1081).

L'Opera Completa di Boldini, edited by E. Camesasca, introduction by C. L. Ragghianti, Rizzoli, Milan 1970, n. 530B, p. 129, not reproduced.

B. Doria, Giovanni Boldini. Catalogo generale dagli archivi Boldini, Rizzoli, Milan 2000, n. 634.

There were few artists in the late nineteenth century whose skills could compare to Giovanni Boldini’s ability to express the exuberance, vitality, and unambiguous sensuality of the Parisian Belle Époque. After leaving his native Italy for Paris in 1871, Boldini was the most sought-after portraitist in the fashionable city, and counted among his clients such social and cultural luminaries as Consuelo Vanderbilt the Duchess of Marlborough, Giuseppe Verdi, and Count Robert de Montesquieu. His distinctive swirling, swift brushwork garnered him the title of “Master of Swish” for its evocation of a kind of kinetic, vibrant energy that not only challenged conventional artistic notions of polish and finish, but also translated onto canvas the spirit of the era’s profound cultural and social change.

Although Boldini favored elegant women who were richly attired in the elegant silk fashions of the period as the subjects of his oeuvre, this painting also demonstrates Boldini’s interest in depicting more intimate, often erotic images of women who seem unaware or even indifferent to the presence of the artist. In her state of immodest repose, the subject of this painting is fully engrossed in her reading, giving into a private pleasure that mirrored society’s desire for more relaxed social restrictions and leisure activities. Like his friend and contemporary Edgar Degas, Boldini looked to the bold lines and sharply contrasting light and dark tones of the seventeenth-century master Spanish painter Velasquez for inspiration; the dynamic figure of the woman in this painting is brought to life by angular, elongated brushstrokes, while the dark tones which obscure her face also serve to make this a portrait not only of the physical, but also of the emotional, form of a woman.