Giovanni Boldini Lot n° 745

Ferrara, 1842 - Paris, 1931 Cortile rustico Oil on panel, 17.5X27 cm Provenance Paris, Atelier Boldini Milan, private collection Publications: E. Cardona, ms. 1931, no. 223 E. Camesasca, L'opera completa di Boldini, Milan, 1970, p. 97, no. 80 b b/w B. Doria, Giovanni Boldini Catalogo Generale: Schede, Milan, 2000, no. 213 In 1862, Boldini, who was already well known in Ferrara for his portraits and landscape views, moved to Florence to enrol at the Accademia di Belle Arti, where Stefano Ussi and Enrico Pollastrini taught. During his stay in Florence, he became inseparable friends with Michele Gordigiani and Cristiano Banti; with them he frequented the Caffè Michelangelo which at that time hosted the painters Giovanni Fattori, Telemaco Signorini, Vincenzo Cabianca, Odoardo Borrani and the critic Diego Martelli, all important exponents of the new pictorial current of the Macchiaioli. To complete his artistic career, in 1867 Boldini moved to Paris for the Exposition Universelle, where he admired the works of Courbet and got to know the Impressionist painters, such as Edouard Manet, Alfred Sisley and Edgar Degas. A multifaceted artist, he was able to move effectively from genre scenes to city views, from landscapes to atelier interiors, from nudes to portraits. He was at his best with portraits, becoming the official portrait painter of the fin de siècle world. His paintings describe and define the style, trends and aesthetics of the Ville Lumière, the undisputed European capital of the time. He was admired for his skill in drawing and his precious research into colour, achieved both through a palette reduced to browns and with tones that were sometimes violent, but always tastefully combined, with a virtuosity that led him to an entirely original and personal style. Our painting is executed with broad, rapid brushstrokes, which allow a partial glimpse of the wood of the support without preparation and which, as in other cases, concentrate on specific details, leaving other elements unfinished.