Giovanni Boldini (1842-1931) - Nude back, presumed portrait of Lina Cavalieri

Giovanni BOLDINI
(Ferrara 1842 - Paris 1931)
Nude back, presumed portrait of Lina Cavalieri (1874-1944)
Graphite on paper, H. 280 mm ; W. 255 mm.
Signed lower right, and dated 1901


Provenance: Christie's London, lot 516, June 29, 2000; Me Briest, Hôtel Dassault, lot 12, sold for €42,000, June 22, 2001.


Born in Ferrara, where his father worked as a painter and art restorer, Boldini quickly left Emilia-Romagna for Florence in 1862. Here, outside the Academy, he rubbed shoulders with the Macchiaoli group, with whom he explored a new, more direct and immediate relationship with nature. Already a renowned portraitist by the age of twenty, in 1866 he was commissioned by Isabella Falconer to create a cycle of naturalistic frescoes for the Villa Falconiera in Pistoia. This English patron opened the doors of Europe to him: in 1867, he was in Paris for the Exposition Universelle, where he met Edgar Degas and Edouard Manet, who were to have a singular influence on his pictorial approach. In 1869, he went to London, where he studied Thomas Gainsborough, and quickly achieved great success among socialites with his portraits of ladies. From 1870 onwards, he moved to the Pigalle district of Paris and began portraying the "Tout-Paris".
His success as a portraitist who was certainly worldly, but also highly innovative in the naturalness of his poses, both refined and eccentric, and the liveliness of his electric brushstrokes and colors, would never be denied. He was a frequent visitor to Italy, Holland, Spain and New York. A man of the world, the "Master of Ferrara" was a friend of the Baron de Rothschild, musician Giuseppe Verdi, novelist Colette and painters Edgar Degas and John Singer Sargent, whose Paris studio he took over in 1885.


Giovanni Boldini's reputation was built on his worldly portraits, but we can't exclude from his output more intimate images of his models posing. Such is this nude of the back, where the artist's lively touch is applied in zones in the background to bring out the generous female forms in reserve. The curves of the body are emphasized by the circular pencil strokes we've come to expect from the Belle Époque maestro's strong compositions.
The slender face and aquiline nose may point us to a Boldini model of the period: Lina Cavalieri, an Italian soprano who was successful in Paris, and who posed before the painter's easel on numerous occasions. An 1898 painting entitled Il cappellino nuovo (fig.1) also depicts the young woman in profile.




(Fig.1) Il cappellino nuovo, oil on canvas, private collection.