Giovanni Boldini

Giovanni Boldini was an extremely productive Italian-French portrait painter of the 19th century. His father was also a painter and enabled him to study at the Academy of Fine Arts in Florence. His landscape paintings from this period show a spontaneous reaction to nature. But it was only as a portrait painter that he achieved greater fame. When he moved to London, he quickly gained popularity in elegant society and was able to paint famous personalities such as Lady Holland and the Duchess of Westminster.

In 1872 Boldini settled in Paris. He soon became the most popular portrait painter in Paris of the later 19th century. In his series of portraits, the respected painter immortalized the most beautiful women of Parisian society. With his energetic strokes and also because of his modernity, he immortalized the female attraction, the luxuriant, rustling dresses; indeed, his works reflect the entire Belle Époque: the epoch around the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries, a golden age full of pomp, dance and carefree attitude to life.
Giovanni Boldini, also enjoyed international fame. He was so well known and popular in America that a solo exhibition was dedicated to him in New York in 1897.

To this day, it is fascinating how he captured and emphasized female beauty, thus succeeding in revealing the most intimate and mysterious soul of the noble ladies of that era.