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Date: 1842-1931

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Description: signed and dated Boldini/1892 (lower left)

oil on canvas

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Dimensions: 73 1/2 by 40 3/4 in. 186.7 by 103.5 cm.

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Provenance: PROPERTY FROM HSBC'S CORPORATE ART COLLECTION

Sold by the artist directly to Baron Maurice de Rothschild
Thence by descent
Sale, Christie's, New York, November 1, 1995, lot 7 (purchased by Edmond Safra for Republic National Bank)

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Exhibited: Paris, Exposition Nationale des Beaux-Arts, May 1892, no. 137
New York, Wildenstein and Co., Loan Exhibition of Paintings by Boldini 1845-1931, March - April, 1933, no. 13

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Published: E. Cardona, Boldini Parisien d'Italie, Milan, 1952, p. 145
G. Piazza, Boldini, Milan, 1989, p. 298
B. Doria, Giovanni Boldini Catalogo generale dagli archivi Boldini, Milan, 2000, no. 297, illustrated
P. Dini, F. Dini, Boldini Catalogo ragionato, Turin 2002, vol.II, p. 328, no. 605, illustrated
F. Panconi, Boldini L'opera completa, Florence, 2002, p. 337, illustrated

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Notes: By the early 1890s, Giovanni Boldini had securely established himself in Paris as the leading portraitist to the world's most fashionable women, an international clientele that included celebrated hostesses and cosmopolitan beauties of France, Great Britain, the United States and South America, as well as his native Italy. With each sucessful commission, Boldini's circle of admirers expanded; and rivalries and friendships among his famous patrons brought further clients to his door. In 1892, Boldini was commissioned to paint the portraits of Josephina Alvear de Errazuriz and her daughter Giovinetta (see lot 124), presumably a reverberation from the artist's successful suite of portraits for the family of Josephina's sister-in-law, Amalia Subercasseux (née Errazuriz), wife of the Chilean Ambassador to France, completed in 1887.

An important factor in Boldini's sucess was his appreciation of his sitters' couture gowns and his ability to present dresses as well as women to best advantage. As in Portrait of Josephina Alvear de Errazuriz, he favored simple settings and elegant furniture that might be inventively colored (on the canvas) to complement a model's complexion or her choice of portrait costume. He frequently worked elaborate variations on daring color chords, as in the interplay of deep greens and wheaten-golds in Madame Alvear's striped satin dress, heightened by the yellow-green cushions of the daybed. But most important, Boldini was able to coax an intimate connection between his model and her audience that gave his portraits a memorable immediacy and true modernity.

This catalogue entry was written by Alexandra Murphy.