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Description: signed "Boldini" lower left- -oil on canvas 22 x 13 1/2 in. (56 x 34.5 cm.) PROVENANCE Henry C. Gibson, Philadelphia (bequeathed to The Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts, Philadelphia, 1892) Sale, Christie's New York, February 23, 1989, lot 234 EXHIBITED Possibly New York, National Academy of Design, "The Pedestal Fund Art Loan Exhibition," December 1883, no. 59 (as "In the Meadow") New York, New York Cultural Center, "Ottocento Painting," November 15-December 31, 1972, no. 5. This exhibition later travelled to The Columbia Museum of Art, January 9-February 4, 1973, St. Petersburg Museum of Fine Arts, February 26-March 25, 1973, Jacksonville, Cummer Gallery of Arts, April 3-April 29, 1973 and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, May 5-June 15, 1973 Southampton, New York, The Parrish Art Museum, "In Support of Liberty, European Paintings at the 1883 Pedestal Fine Art Loan Exhibition," June 29-September 1, 1986, no. 5. This exhibition later travelled to New York, National Academy of Design, September 18-December 7, 1986 LITERATURE E. Strahan, "Art Treasures of America," Philadelphia, 1879, vol. I, pp. 72, 73 and 80 (illustrated) A. P. Quinsac, "Ottocento Painting" (exh. cat.), Columbia, S. C. 1972, p. 56, no. 5 (illustrated) M. C. O'Brien, "In Support of Liberty, European Paintings at the 1883 Pedestal Fund Art Loan Exhibition" (exh. cat.), Southampton, 1986, pp. 132-134, no. 5 (illustrated) The vibrant palette and keen study of light in "The Summer Stroll" are elements of painting that concerned Boldini during his early discussions with Macchiaiolo whom he had met at the Caffe Michelangelo when studying in Florence. The Macchiaioli's concerns with the freedom of form and color were not unlike those of their French compatriots, the Impressionists, and in 1867 Boldini decided to travel to Paris to see the Exposition Universelle (see lot 33) and to study firsthand the Impressionists as would his countrymen Zandomeneghi (see lot 127), De Nittis and Palizzi not long thereafter. Though he returned to Italy, Boldini had clearly been impressed by what he had seen in Paris. In 1870 he was invited to London to work, but in 1871 he decided to settle in Paris. The paintings he executed during his early years in Paris are characteristically virtuoso jewels which are painted on small wooden panels. Their subjects were often Belle-Epoque genre scenes set in "plein-air" settings, and executed with Boldini's unique, spontaneous brushwork. They became immediately popular with both European and American collectors. "The Summer Stroll," painted in the countryside outside Paris in 1873, depicts Boldini's model, Berthe, walking through a field of flowers dappled in sunlight. In Berthe, Boldini found the quintesenial elements of the modern Parisian woman. She was an exquisite model whose capricious, cunning and chargeable personality is unabashedly rendered in "A Summer Stroll." This idea of a beautifully dressed woman depicted out-of-doors is in the tradition of Monet's "Women in the Garden," and portraits of his wife, Camille, as well as Renoir's beautiful "Lise. The Summer Stroll," virtually unknown and untraced in the Boldini literature, once belonged to the well-known 19th Century Philadelphia collector Henry C. Gibson. It is possible that Mr. Gibson bought the painting directly from the artist as was the practice of many American collectors who paid visits to artists' studios while completing "grand tours" of Europe, though it is equally likely that he purchased it from Boldini's Parisian dealer at the time, Goupil.