Giovanni Boldini
Encyclopedia
Italy
Italy , officially the Italian Republic languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Italy's official name is as follows:;;;;;;;;), is a unitary parliamentary republic in South-Central Europe. To the north it borders France, Switzerland, Austria and...
genre and portrait painter. According to a 1933 article in Time magazine, he was known as the "Master of Swish" because of his flowing style of painting.
Early life
Boldini was born in FerraraFerrara
Ferrara is a city and comune in Emilia-Romagna, northern Italy, capital city of the Province of Ferrara. It is situated 50 km north-northeast of Bologna, on the Po di Volano, a branch channel of the main stream of the Po River, located 5 km north...
, the son of a painter of religious subjects, and went to Florence
Florence
Florence is the capital city of the Italian region of Tuscany and of the province of Florence. It is the most populous city in Tuscany, with approximately 370,000 inhabitants, expanding to over 1.5 million in the metropolitan area....
in 1862 to study painting, meeting there the realist
Realism (arts)
Realism in the visual arts and literature refers to the general attempt to depict subjects "in accordance with secular, empirical rules", as they are considered to exist in third person objective reality, without embellishment or interpretation...
painters known as the Macchiaioli
Macchiaioli
The Macchiaioli were a group of Italian painters active in Tuscany in the second half of the nineteenth century, who, breaking with the antiquated conventions taught by the Italian academies of art, did much of their painting outdoors in order to capture natural light, shade, and colour...
. Their influence is seen in Boldini's landscapes
Landscape art
Landscape art is a term that covers the depiction of natural scenery such as mountains, valleys, trees, rivers, and forests, and especially art where the main subject is a wide view, with its elements arranged into a coherent composition. In other works landscape backgrounds for figures can still...
which show his spontaneous response to nature, although it is for his portraits
Portrait painting
Portrait painting is a genre in painting, where the intent is to depict the visual appearance of the subject. Beside human beings, animals, pets and even inanimate objects can be chosen as the subject for a portrait...
that he became best known.
Career
Boldini attained great success in LondonLondon
London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...
as a portraitist. From 1872 he lived in Paris
Paris
Paris is the capital and largest city in France, situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the Île-de-France region...
, where he became a friend of Edgar Degas
Edgar Degas
Edgar Degas[p] , born Hilaire-Germain-Edgar De Gas, was a French artist famous for his work in painting, sculpture, printmaking and drawing. He is regarded as one of the founders of Impressionism although he rejected the term, and preferred to be called a realist...
. He also became the most fashionable portrait painter in Paris in the late 19th century, with a dashing style of painting which shows some Impressionist
Impressionism
Impressionism was a 19th-century art movement that originated with a group of Paris-based artists whose independent exhibitions brought them to prominence during the 1870s and 1880s...
influence but which most closely resembles the work of his contemporaries John Singer Sargent
John Singer Sargent
John Singer Sargent was an American artist, considered the "leading portrait painter of his generation" for his evocations of Edwardian era luxury. During his career, he created roughly 900 oil paintings and more than 2,000 watercolors, as well as countless sketches and charcoal drawings...
and Paul Helleu
Paul César Helleu
Paul César Helleu was a French artist best known for his portraits of many of the most famous and beautiful women of his time including the Duchess of Marlborough, the Countess of Greffulhe, the Marchesa Casati and Belle da Costa Greene.-Biography:He was born in Vannes, Brittany, France...
. He was nominated commissioner of the Italian section of the Paris Exposition
Exposition Universelle (1889)
The Exposition Universelle of 1889 was a World's Fair held in Paris, France from 6 May to 31 October 1889.It was held during the year of the 100th anniversary of the storming of the Bastille, an event traditionally considered as the symbol for the beginning of the French Revolution...
in 1889, and received the Légion d'honneur
Légion d'honneur
The Legion of Honour, or in full the National Order of the Legion of Honour is a French order established by Napoleon Bonaparte, First Consul of the Consulat which succeeded to the First Republic, on 19 May 1802...
for this appointment.
Discovery
A Boldini portrait of his former muse Marthe de Florian, a French actress, was discovered in a Paris flat in late 2010, hidden away from view on the premises that were unvisited for 70 years. The portrait has never been listed, exhibited or published and the flat belonged to de Florian's granddaughter who went to live in the South of France before the Second World WarWorld War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
and never returned.
A love-note and a biographical reference to the work painted in 1898, when the actress was 24, cemented its authenticity. At auction the painting sold for €2.1 million, a record for the artist.
Current culture
Giovanni Boldini is a character in the balletBallet
Ballet is a type of performance dance, that originated in the Italian Renaissance courts of the 15th century, and which was further developed in France and Russia as a concert dance form. The early portions preceded the invention of the proscenium stage and were presented in large chambers with...
Franca Florio, regina di Palermo, written in 2007 by the Italian composer Lorenzo Ferrero
Lorenzo Ferrero
Lorenzo Ferrero is a contemporary Italian composer with a predilection for opera, a librettist, author, and book editor. He started composing at an early age and wrote over a hundred compositions thus far, including twelve operas, three ballets, and numerous orchestral, chamber music, solo...
, which depicts the story of Donna Franca, a famous Sicilian aristocrat whose exceptional beauty inspired him and many other artists, musicians, poets and emperors during the Belle Époque
Belle Époque
The Belle Époque or La Belle Époque was a period in European social history that began during the late 19th century and lasted until World War I. Occurring during the era of the French Third Republic and the German Empire, it was a period characterised by optimism and new technological and medical...
.
Works
- Portrait of Lady Colin CampbellGertrude Elizabeth BloodLady Colin Campbell , born Gertrude Elizabeth Blood, was an Irish-born journalist, author, playwright, and editor. She was married to Lord Colin Campbell, a brother-in-law of Princess Louise, Queen Victoria's fourth daughter.-Biography:Her parents were Edmund Maghlin Blood Lady Colin Campbell (3...
- Portrait of a Man in a Church
- Portrait of Rita de Acosta LydigRita de Acosta LydigRita Lydig was an American socialite regarded as "the most picturesque woman in America." She was photographed by Adolf de Meyer, Edward Steichen, and Gertrude Käsebier, sculpted in alabaster by Malvina Hoffman, and was painted by Giovanni Boldini and John Singer Sargent, among others...
- Portrait of Lina CavalieriLina CavalieriLina Cavalieri was an Italian operatic soprano and diseuse known for her grace and beauty.-Biography:...
- Portrait of Willy, the Writer Henri Gauthier-Villars
- Portrait of Anita De La Feria, The Spanish Dancer
- Portrait of Marchesa Luisa CasatiLuisa CasatiLuisa, Marquise Casati Stampa di Soncino was an eccentric Italian heiress, muse, and patroness of the arts in early 20th century Europe...
, with a Greyhound - Portrait of Lady Phillips
- Portrait of Madame Josephina Alvear de Errazuriz
- Portrait of Princess Marthe BibescoMarthe BibescoMarthe, Princess Bibesco was a Romanian-French writer of the Belle Époque...
- Portrait of a Lady, Lina Bilitis, with two Pekineses
- The Black Sash
- Portrait of Mrs. Howard-Johnston
- Portrait of Mlle. de Gillespie, La Dame de Biarritz
- Portrait of Donna Franca Florio
- Portrait of Countess Zichy
- Portrait of Madame Hugo, and her son
- Portrait of Giovinetta Errazuriz
- Portrait of Consuelo VanderbiltConsuelo VanderbiltConsuelo Balsan , was a member of the prominent American Vanderbilt family...
, Duchess of Marlborough and her son, Lord Ivor Spencer-ChurchillLord Ivor Spencer-ChurchillThe Lord Ivor Charles Spencer-Churchill was the younger son of the 9th Duke of Marlborough and his first wife, the former Consuelo Vanderbilt, an American railroad heiress.... - The Misses MurielMuriel VanderbiltMuriel Vanderbilt was an American socialite and a thoroughbred racehorse owner/breeder who was a member of the wealthy Vanderbilt family.-Biography:...
and Consuelo VanderbiltConsuelo VanderbiltConsuelo Balsan , was a member of the prominent American Vanderbilt family... - Interior of the artist's studio with the portrait of Giovinetta Errazuriz
- Portrait of the young Subercaseuse
- Mme Georges Victor-Hugo with her son
- Portrait of the Marchesa Luisa Casati
- Studies for the Portrait of Marchesa Luisa Casati
- Portrait of Robert de MontesquiouRobert de MontesquiouMarie Joseph Robert Anatole, comte de Montesquiou-Fézensac , was a French aesthete, Symbolist poet, art collector and dandy....
- Portrait of Giuseppe VerdiGiuseppe VerdiGiuseppe Fortunino Francesco Verdi was an Italian Romantic composer, mainly of opera. He was one of the most influential composers of the 19th century...
- La Passeggiata al Bois
- Portrait of Edgar DegasEdgar DegasEdgar Degas[p] , born Hilaire-Germain-Edgar De Gas, was a French artist famous for his work in painting, sculpture, printmaking and drawing. He is regarded as one of the founders of Impressionism although he rejected the term, and preferred to be called a realist...
- Portrait of J. A. M. WhistlerJames McNeill WhistlerJames Abbott McNeill Whistler was an American-born, British-based artist. Averse to sentimentality and moral allusion in painting, he was a leading proponent of the credo "art for art's sake". His famous signature for his paintings was in the shape of a stylized butterfly possessing a long stinger...
- Self-Portrait
- Place Pigalle
- The Connoisseur
- Gossip
- Delivering the Despatch
- Kitchen Garden
- Repose in the Atelier
- Spanish Dancer
The Vanderbilt collection (Metropolitan Museum, New York City
Metropolitan Museum of Art
The Metropolitan Museum of Art is a renowned art museum in New York City. Its permanent collection contains more than two million works, divided into nineteen curatorial departments. The main building, located on the eastern edge of Central Park along Manhattan's Museum Mile, is one of the...
) possesses two fine examples, Ladies of the First Empire and Des Parisiennes.
Present exhibition
- Giovanni Boldini. Capolavori e opere inedite dall'atelier dell'artista (Masterpieces and unpublished works from the Atelier of the artist) , by Enzo Savoia, Milan (Italy), Bottegantica, 60 exhibits, from 25/02/2011 to 28/05/2011.
Literature
- E. Savoia (a cura di), Giovanni Boldini. Il dinamismo straordinario delle linee, (catalogo della mostra), Bologna (Italy) 1999
- E. Savoia (a cura di), Omaggio a Giovanni Boldini, (catalogo della mostra), Bologna (Italy) 2001
- P. Dini e F. Dini, Giovanni Boldini 1842-1931. Catalogo ragionato, Torino, 2002
- E. Savoia (a cura di), G. Boldini. Dalla macchia alla sperimentazione dinamica, (catalogo della mostra), Bologna (Italy) 2003
- E. Savoia (a cura di), Giovanni Boldini. Capolavori e opere inedite dall'atelier dell'artista, (catalogo della mostra), Milano (Italy) 2011
- S. Bosi, E. Savoia, Giovanni Boldini. Il Narratore della "dolce vita" parigina, Treviso, Antiga Edizioni, 2011
- S. Bosi, E. Savoia, La mostra di Giovanni Boldini del 1963 al Musée Jacquemart-André di Parigi da un album fotografico inedito, Milano (Italy) 2011
External links
- www.GiovanniBoldini.org 77 works by Giovanni Boldini
- www.GiovanniBoldini.com Giovanni Boldini. Capolavori e opere inedite dall'atelier dell'artista
- Giovanni Boldini at the John Singer Sargent Virtual Gallery
- Giovanni Boldini at ArtCyclopediaArtCyclopediaArtcyclopedia is an online database of museum-quality fine art founded by Canadian John Malyon. The Artcyclopedia only deals with art that can be viewed online, and indexes 2,300 art sites , with links to around 180,000 artworks by 8,500 renowned artists. The site has also started to compile a list...
- www.giovanniboldini.eu Virtual Gallery and reference
- www.GiovanniBoldini.it Giovanni Boldini. Capolavori e opere inedite dall'atelier dell'artista
- Video excerpt from the ballet Franca Florio, regina di Palermo