Giovanni Boldini

John Singer Sargent
His sale; Christie Manson & Woods, London, July 24-27, 1925, lot 273
Knoedler & Company, New York (acquired at the above sale)
Scott and Fowles, New York
Private Collection (and sold: Christie's, New York, November 1, 1995, lot 16, illustrated)
Acquired at the above sale by the present owner

G. L. Marini, ed., Il valore dei dipinti italiani dell'Ottocento e del primo Novecento : l'analisi critica, storica ed economica, Turin, 14th edition, 1996, p. 96
Tiziano Panconi, Giovanni Boldini, L'uomo e la pittura, Pisa, 1998,  pp. 68, p. 69 illustrated (color plate); no. 25/B-11, illustrated
Piero Dini and Francesca Dini, Giovanni Boldini, 1842-1931, Catalogo Ragionato, Turin, 2002, vol. III, p. 111, no. 179, illustrated p. 69

The following condition report was kindly provided by Simon Parkes Art Conservation, Inc.: This finely detailed picture was painted on a single piece of mahogany. The panel is in a beautiful state. The few tiny cracks above the heads of the figures have been retouched, but apart from these accurate retouches, there do not appear to be any other restorations. This picture is in lovely condition and we recommend that it be hung as is.
"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."

As with A Friend of the Marquis (see lot 92), the present work is part of Boldini's series of small scale compositions which reveal the private rooms of Empire period households, providing a glimpse of the leisurely daily lives of well-dressed women. Indeed the composition of the two works is closely related, though the space inhabited by these elegant ladies in an interior holds more elaborate decoration.  In this well-appointed room, the two women, one doing a needlepoint, the other quietly reading, sit at a guéridon (most likely dating circa 1804-1815), on a pair of gilded and white-painted armchairs, while a Louis XVI settee (circa 1785) completes the furniture arrangement.  Adding to the period décor are the objets on the mantelpiece and the painted urn within a lozenge on the wall, a distinct element of Louis XVI or Directoire style.

In its precisely painted details, tight composition, and sensual decorative appeal, the present work invites an exploration into the artistic community which inspired it.  In 1871, Boldini settled in Paris, at the Place Pigalle, and quickly became a part of the vibrant city's art scene in which Degas, Manet and Sisley were all active members; meanwhile, his dealer Adolphe Goupil worked closely with Bouguereau, Gérôme and other established artists in the field.  Boldini's stature in the art world ascended around the same time as another young, emerging artist, John Singer Sargent. Sargent, like Boldini, had made his way from Italy to Paris, in his case to enroll at the École des Beaux-Arts in 1874, before entering the atelier of the highly successful portraitist Emile-Auguste Carolus-Duran, Michael Quick, American Expatriate Painters of the Late Nineteenth Century, exh. cat., Dayton, Ohio, 1976, p. 129).  While it is difficult to determine exactly when Boldini and Sargent may have first met, the two certainly traveled in the same social and artistic circles, and their friendship has been documented through the 1880s.  Each artist exhibited at the Salon within a few years of one another:  Boldini for the first time in 1874, Sargent in 1877.  In the early 1880s the two artists presented at the Société internationale de peintres et sculpteurs at the Galerie Georges Petit, celebrated as members of a group of innovative young artists known as "les jeunes" which also included included Jules Bastien-Lepage (see lot 2), Jean Béraud, Jean-Charles Cazin, and Max Liebermann among others (Marc Simpson, Uncanny Spectacle: The Public Career of the Young John Singer Sargent, exh. cat., New Haven, 1997).

Beyond these early interactions, Sargent and Boldini have often been linked stylistically, most notably in the fashionable vitality of their famous society portraits.  Given this shared celebrity, it is particularly interesting that Boldini, in 1889, completed three portraits of Sargent which portray the artist in chic pose and sartorial splendor (fig. 1). This certainly demonstrates that Sargent held a sincere admiration of his friend-turned-portraitist's work; indeed his technique (along with that of Antonio Mancini) is often credited as having a "liberating influence" on the artist (Royal Cortissoz, The Painter's Craft, New York, 1930, p. 285 as quoted in Patricia Hills, John Singer Sargent, exh. cat., New York, 1987, p. 213). Sargent's admiration for Boldini is further evidenced by the inclusion of Confidences in his personal collection. While it is yet to be determined exactly when Sargent obtained this panel, it is believed to be the only of Boldini's work included, and was most likely displayed with other works by Wilfrid de Glehn, Paul Helleu and Claude Monet. Perhaps, Confidences was a gift from one artist to another---an interesting selection, because this early, somewhat more mannered work avoids the direct comparisons often made between the two artists' later styles.  Or it may have been purchased by Sargent as a souvenir of his talented friend and colleague. In any case, an appraisal of the present work provides an intriguing opportunity to explore the shared experiences of two of the most influential artists of the late nineteenth century.