Giovanni Boldini

Painted circa 1885.

Small scale genre scenes of fashionable Parisians at home or at play and character heads that blended portraiture with a touch of erotic allure were an important part of Giovanni Boldini's production.  Especially during the 1870s and early 1880s in Paris, as he established himself as a major force in the highly competitive realm of portraitists to the elite, such smaller works were a necessary source of income and a means of self-advertisement.  But throughout his lifetime, more intimate paintings on the scale of Portrait of a Lady with Lilacs provided Boldini with an opportunity to paint simply for himself.

Portrait of a Lady with Lilacs may indeed be the portrait of a young woman whose identity has been lost to us, perhaps a close friend of the artist as suggested by her easy smile.  But the deshabille of her bare shoulder, semi- transparent stole and strategically placed stem of lilacs all suggest a degree of intimacy that would be just a step beyond appropriate in the encounter between client and portraitist.  It seems just as likely that the painting is a created image, posed by a model, intended to tempt the viewer with the sensuality of the subject matter and the equally pronounced sensuality of Boldini's characteristically fluid paint work.  From the roiling red curls of her unbound hair through the self-assured chaos of the white splotches that suggest embroidery on her tulle wrap, both the lady and the painting invite one's touch.