The Hidden Boldini

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Yesterday I did a post about Boldini and mentioned the fact that a painting had been found in a house in Paris which had been left empty and locked up for over seventy years, I found this story so extraordinary I thought I would investigate further, here is the full article from The Telegraph 4th October 2010:
 

'Behind the door, under a thick layer of dusk lay a treasure trove of turn-of-the-century objects including a painting by the 19th century Italian artist Giovanni Boldini. 

The woman who owned the flat had left for the south of France before the Second World War and never returned.

But when she died recently aged 91, experts were tasked with drawing up an inventory of her possessions and homed in on the flat near the Trinité church in Paris between the Pigalle red light district and Opera.
Entering the untouched, cobweb-filled flat in Paris' 9th arrondissement, one expert said it was like stumbling into the castle of Sleeping Beauty, where time had stood still since 1900. 

"There was a smell of old dust," said Olivier Choppin-Janvry, who made the discovery. Walking under high wooden ceilings, past an old wood stove and stone sink in the kitchen, he spotted a stuffed ostrich and a Mickey Mouse toy dating from before the war, as well as an exquisite dressing table. 

But he said his heart missed a beat when he caught sight of a stunning tableau of a woman in a pink muslin evening dress. 

The painting was by Boldini and the subject a beautiful Frenchwoman who turned out to be the artist's former muse and whose granddaughter it was who had left the flat uninhabited for more than half a century.
The muse was Marthe de Florian, an actress with a long list of ardent admirers, whose fervent love letters she kept wrapped neatly in ribbon and were still on the premises. Among the admirers was the 72nd prime minister of France, George Clemenceau, but also Boldini. 

The expert had a hunch the painting was by Boldini, but could find no record of the painting. "No reference book dedicated to Boldini mentioned the tableau, which was never exhibited," said Marc Ottavi, the art specialist he consulted about the work. 

When Mr Choppin-Janvry found a visiting card with a scribbled love note from Boldini, he knew he had struck gold. "We had the link and I was sure at that moment that it was indeed a very fine Boldini".
He finally found a reference to the work in a book by the artist's widow, which said it was painted in 1898 when Miss de Florian was 24. 

The starting price for the painting was €300,000 but it rocketed as ten bidders vyed for the historic work. Finally it went under the hammer for €2.1 million, a world record for the artist.
"It was a magic moment. One could see that the buyer loved the painting; he paid the price of passion," said Mr Ottavi.'

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'Madame de Florian' the hidden Boldini!

Giovanni Boldini The King Of Swish

'Portrait of a Lady'

Continuing with the theme of fashion inspired by history, I thought I would do a post on one of my favourite painter's Giovanni Boldini.  Anybody who was anybody at the end of the nineteenth and early twentieth century had their portrait painted by him, he was the Mario Testino of his day.  His works continue to inspire.

'Fireworks'

Giovanni Boldini enjoyed a long and successful artistic career (b.1842 - d.1931). Born in Ferrara, Italy in 1842 and trained on the Italian Renaissance masters from childhood with his religious artist-father, Antonio Boldini.

He also studied under other accomplished artists, gaining a reputation even at that young age as an accomplished portrait painter. He then studied in Florence at the age of 20, at the Scuola del nudo (the School of Nudes), a subject he would return to only in old age.

 'Lady In Red'

 Giovanni combined work and study for many years, training in Paris and London, and Holland and Germany. He moved to Paris but continued traveling for his work. He developed his own, distinct style, and his portraits grew in fame, helped greatly by a portrait commissioned by Giuseppe Verdi in 1886, the biggest celebrity of his day.

Verdi gave Boldini an introduction into the world of opera, which led to many commissions for portraits, and to many intimate paintings of opera fans in theatres and cafes around Europe.

 'Spanish Dancer at the Moulin Rouge'

You can see his paintings in museums around the world, including the N.Y. Metropolitan Museum, the Musee d'Orsay in Paris, the National Portrait Gallery in London, the Legion of Honor Fine Arts Museum in San Francisco, and the National Gallery of Australia. And his paintings are reproduced on prints, posters and greeting cards.

But most of Boldini's paintings remain in private collections. This is because most of his paintings were commissioned portraits, society portraits. Everyone who was anyone HAD to have their portrait (or their wife's portrait) painted by Boldini.

'Ritratto Di Lady Michelham'

Boldini's paintings showed his subject in soft-focus, elongated, in movement, alive, and sophisticated. He was even dubbed the King of Swish, and looking at his portraits of women, you can see why. His portraits were flattering.

 The brush work on his paintings was swift and bold. It is the masterful brushwork that gives his paintings the sense of motion.

 

'Testa di Giovane'

   He also painted landscapes in the naturalistic style of his day, influenced by the Macchiaioli schooled artists he knew in Florence, and worked on engravings, with pastels, watercolors and etchings. Only toward the end of his long life, did his style change, becoming more impressionistic (possibly due to his failing eyesight), using mainly dark, rich colors.

His subjects changed as well. He no longer relied on portraits for a living, so he began painting subjects he wanted to paint, which seemed to be lots of nude women. Perhaps this was just his Italian nature exerting itself, and a return to his preferred youthful choice of subject.

 

 'The Black Sash'

Another change that came late in life was the bachelor Boldini finally married. To quote from a magazine article:

In 1929, aged 86, he suddenly married. At his wedding breakfast he made a little speech:

"It is not my fault if I am so old, it's something which has happened to me all at once."

'Reclining Nude 2'

 'Cleo de Morode'

'Consuelo Duchess of Marlborough with her Son, Ivor Spencer Churchill'

'Marchesa Luisa Casati with a Greyhound' Go here to find out more about her.

'Madame Juillard in red'

'Mademoiselle de Nemidoff'

'Ritratto di Suzy'

 'Gladis Deacon'

'La Femme en Rouge'

 'Donna Franco Florio'

 'Rita de Acosta'

'Lina Caverlieri' Go here to read all about her.

'Princess Marthe-Lucile Bibesco'

 'Lady Bilitis with two Pekinese'

'The Pansies'

I love this painting it looks like the subject was picking them up, off the stage, after a successful performance at the opera or ballet.

'John Singer Sargent'

'Giuseppe Verdi'

The breakthrough portrait which launched his career

Boldini at his easel

Whilst doing my research for this post I read, fairly recently in a house in Pigalle, Paris, which had been locked up and left empty for over seventy years a Boldini was discovered amongst the cobwebs, it sold at auction for 2.1 million euros.  If you don't have one languishing in your attic you can always order a hand painted reproduction for a fraction of the cost from here.

I would like to thank the wonderful and talented Mrs Jones for inspiring me to do this post, to find out what's been inspiring Mrs Jones visit her fabulous blog here.