Giovanni Boldini

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Giovanni Boldini in his studio, photographed by Alice Guérin, around 1925

Giovanni Boldini (* 31 December 1842 in Ferrara ; † 12. January 1931 in Paris ) was an Italian - French painter of Impressionism . He was one of the most sought-after portrait painters in the Belle Époque .

Life

Giovanni Boldini dances with Ava Astor, caricature, 1912

Giovanni Boldini came from a well-known family of painters from Ferrara. He received his first drawing lessons from his father and brother-in-law, who urged him to continue his studies in Florence . He studied for six years (1862–1868) at the Florentine Academy and after completing his studies developed a penchant for outdoor painting. Always progressive on the paths of the open-air painters and impressionists, he developed his nervous, sketchy, sparkling technique, which he also made subservient to the genre and the landscape , later more and more to portrait painting, for which his keen eye for the individual of a face made him serve or a figure particularly capable.

After a long stay in London , Boldini settled in Paris in 1872 . Within a very short time he made the acquaintance of the city's famous artists, including James McNeill Whistler , John Singer Sargent , Robert de Montesquiou , Philip Alexius de László and Paul César Helleu . He soon became close friends with Edgar Degas . Boldini established himself as a successful painter of the boulevard portraits of the rich and beautiful in the 1880s.

At the Exposition Universelle (1889) Giovanni Boldini took over the acting management of the Italian section of the exhibition and was promoted to Officer de la Légion d'Honneur a year later . In 1895 he received a small gold medal at the Great Berlin Art Exhibition .

In 2010, when an apartment was liquidated in Paris, the 147 × 114 cm oil painting Portrait de madame de Florian was discovered and auctioned in September 2010 for a record price of 1.7 million euros.

  • Self-portrait, oil on canvas, 1892

  • Giovanni Boldini, photographed, 1910

  • Self-portrait, oil on canvas, 1911

  • Portrait de madame de Florian, oil on canvas, around 1900–1910

  • Portrait of Princess Marthe Bibesco , oil on canvas, 1911

literature

  • N. Corradini: Boldini, Giovanni . In: General Artist Lexicon . The visual artists of all times and peoples (AKL). Volume 12, Saur, Munich a. a. 1995, ISBN 3-598-22752-3 , pp. 367-369.
  • Bianca Doria: Giovanni Boldini: Catalogo generale dagli archivi Boldini . Rizzoli, 2000, ISBN 88-17-86730-6 .
  • Gary A Reynolds: Giovanni Boldini and society portraiture, 1880–1920 . New York 1984, OCLC 12189516 .
  • Carlo Lega: Giovanni Boldini: L'uomo, il pittore ei rapporti con i famigliari . G. Corbo, 1994, ISBN 88-85325-31-9 .

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ FAZ. October 2, 2010, p. 41.

Web links

Commons : Giovanni Boldini  - Collection of Images, Videos and Audio Files
personal data
SURNAME Boldini, Giovanni
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Italian impressionist portrait painter
DATE OF BIRTH December 31, 1842
PLACE OF BIRTH Ferrara
DATE OF DEATH January 12, 1931
Place of death Paris