| Biography of old oil painting master Giovanni Boldini what we can copy |
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Giovanni Boldini
Italian painter, draftsman, landscapist,
portraitist, engraver, etcher, printmaker &
pastellist
born 1842 - died 1931
Born in: Ferrara (Emilia-Romagna, Italy)
Died in: Paris (Département de Ville de
Paris, Ile-de-France, France)
Friend of:
Edgar
Degas (1834-1917)
Giovanni Boldini was a portrait painter
and etcher. Giovanni Boldini’s father
Antonio Boldini (1799-1872) was also a
painter. Giovanni Boldini married the journalist Emilia
Cardona. |
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In 1871 Boldini settled in
Paris, having already become renowned as a
society portrait painter in Italy. Under
contract to the art dealer Adolphe Goupil
Giovanni Boldini painted landscapes, views of Parisian life
and fancy costume pieces (e.g. Gossip, 1873;
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York). In
1874 Giovanni Boldini exhibited at the Salon du
Champ-de-Mars, and received critical
acclaim. Around tGiovanni Boldini’s time
Giovanni Boldini began to paint portraits of beautiful
society women (e.g. Comtesse Gabrielle de
Rasty Seated in an Armchair, ca 1878; Stair
Sainty Matthiesen, New York), and Giovanni
Boldini became
friends with other fashionable portrait
painters such as Paul Cesar Helleu, John
Singer Sargent and JW. In 1883-84, according
to the artist Albert Ludovici, JW painted
Olga Alberta, daughter of the Duchess of
Carcciolo (Arrangement in Pink, Red and
Purple (YMSM 324)). Giovanni Boldini’s
interest in the sitter sparked that of
Walter Sickert, Helleu and Boldini who also
went on to paint her portrait. Boldini also
painted JW's patron Lady Colin Campbell (c.
1893, National Portrait Gallery, London). |
Around 1878-80 Boldini began to experiment
with printmaking, producing a small number
of etchings and drypoints.
Edgar Degas'
influence is apparent in some of Giovanni
Boldini’s choices of theme, composition and
technique. In the 1880s Boldini, like Degas,
began to use pastel for large portraits. In
1889 Boldini travelled with Degas to
Morrocco and Spain, where they admired the
work of Velazquez.
In the 1880s and 1890s Boldini travelled
extensively in Italy and Spain and visited
London and New York. Like JW, Boldini was
drawn to Venice, and Giovanni Boldini painted a number of
evocative images of the city that recalled
the work of Turner.
n the late
1890s the two men were in correspondence.
Boldini painted JW's portrait in 1897
(Brooklyn Museum, New York). It was
exhibited at the International Society of
Sculptors, Painters and Gravers at the
Skating Rink, |
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Knightsbridge
in May 1898 alongside a self-portrait of the
President, Gold and Brown (YMSM 462). A
number of Boldini's etchings were also shown
alongside JW's. Boldini also made a drypoint
of JW whilst Giovanni Boldini was posing for the oil
portrait.
Bénézit, E., Dictionnaire des Peintres,
Sculpteurs, Dessinateurs et Graveurs, 8 vols,
Paris, 1956-61; Reynolds, G. A., Giovanni
Boldini and Society Portraiture, 1880-1920,
exhibition catalogue, Grey Art Gallery, New
York University, 1984; Young, Andrew McLaren,
Margaret F. MacDonald, Robin Spencer and
Hamish Miles, The Paintings of James McNeill
Whistler, New Haven and London, 1980;
MacDonald, Margaret F., James McNeill
Whistler. Drawings, Pastels and Watercolours.
A Catalogue Raisonné, New Haven and London,
1995; Calingaert, Efrem Gisella, 'Giovanni
Boldini', The Grove Dictionary of Art
Online, ed. L. Macy, http://www.groveart.com
(accessed 21 May 2002). |
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For FULL catalogue pls click "Catalogue" at the TOP of the page.
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