Giovanni Boldini

Sale: Christie's, London, June 24, 1988, lot 119H
Private Collection (acquired at the above sale)

Carlo Ragghianti and Ettore Camesasca, L'opera completa di Boldini, Milan, 1970, p. 149, no. 450, illustrated
Piero Dini, Francesca Dini, Giovanni Boldini, 1842-1931, Catalogo ragionato, Turin, 2002, vol. III, p. 503, no. 974, illustrated

The following condition report was kindly provided by Simon Parkes Art Conservation, Inc.: This work has been cleaned fairly recently. The paint layer has been lined. The main issue with the painting is the noticeable areas of shrinkage and cracking in Boldini's heavy paint layer; this is commonly seen in the artist's work. There have been a few retouches to this cracking in the figure's chest and in the sleeve of the gown on the right. There are faintly visible pentimenti in the background on both sides of the figure. The condition of this painting can be considered good, but the work would improve noticeably if it were cleaned and more carefully restored.
"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."

Boldini's career as a portrait painter grew steadily during the 1880s and 1890s, and by the dawn of the twentieth century he had become the most sought-after portrait painter in Europe. Some of the wealthiest and most influential members of European and American society passed through his elegant Parisian studio and sat for portraits, including Elizabeth Wharton Drexel, John Singer Sargent, Giuseppe Verdi, Sarah Bernhardt and the Marchesa Casati, whose well-known portrait with greyhounds he had painted in 1908, the year before he painted this Portrait of Diaz Albertini.

The combined influences of Sargent, Paul-César Helleu and James McNeill Whistler created an international style of portraiture at the turn of the century. The elongated figures, fluid brushwork and dynamic compositions that characterize their work inspired portraits by subsequent artists and can still be seen in fashion photography today. This fresh style was symptomatic of changes in the very meaning of both "society" and "portrait". The writings of the Goncourt brothers, Charles Baudelaire, Émile Zola and Marcel Proust evoke a vivid picture of an epoch which saw "high society", based on the aristocracy, replaced by one of the flamboyant and style-conscious nouveau riche, as well as bohemians, courtesans, actresses, musicians and writers.

Boldini's portraits, with their rejection of traditional backdrops and the free attitudes of their sitters, nevertheless owe something to the grand style portraiture of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. Whistler and Boldini had a shared interest in Diego Velazquez, whose work Boldini had studied during his stay in Madrid in 1877. What seems to have appealed most was the psychological intensity of Velazquez's images and his use of carefully constructed and shallow space, as well as a limited palette punctuated by areas of intense color. The influence is evident in Boldini's Portrait of Diaz Albertini, where her plush fur stole blends into the expanse of brushwork behind her. He is careful to articulate her long, knotted string of pearls, her bangles and choker necklace, as well as her extravagant jewels including the sapphires and diamonds decorating her rings.