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ITALIAN, 1842-1931
PORTRAIT OF EDDY AND JACQUES COPPER

measurements
25 1/2 by 31 7/8 in.

alternate measurements
65 by 81 cm

signed Boldini and inscribed à mon ami Copper 1906-1907 (lower right)

oil on canvas

PROVENANCE

Mr. Edouard Copper (commissioned directly from the artist)
Jacques Copper (inherited from the above, his father)
Thence by descent to the present owner

NOTE

Giovanni Boldini painted the Portrait of Eddy and Jacques Copper quickly and with absolute assurance. The two young sons of a friend and colleague of the artist seem to materialize out of the canvas with an immediacy and an informality that speak of both Boldini's affection for these engaging sitters and the genuine pleasure he took in the act of painting.

The Portrait of Eddy and Jacques Copper has only recently come to light, having descended within the family of the sitters for nearly a century, unknown to Boldini scholars. Edouard Copper, the father of Eddy and Jacques, was a French attorney who acted as a business adviser to Boldini during the early 1900s and who is mentioned in the correspondence surrounding Boldini's arrangements for the 1905 Venice Biennale. Copper's wife, the boys' mother, was Juliette Brame, a sister of the prominent Paris art dealer Hector Brame.

Whether the Portrait of Eddy and Jacques Copper was commissioned by their father, or presented by the artist as a gift (as the inscription suggests), the double portrait adds a particularly attractive example to Boldini's acclaimed portraits of children. The simple format of the painting---a rectangle more commonly associated with landscapes---and the lack of furniture or bibelots contribute to the informality of the picture and to the artist's emphasis on the contrasting personalities of the children themselves. This was a portrait destined for an intimate friend rather than a formal command. Eddy and Jacques, cropped at mid-torso, look up at the artist or viewer as if standing in the observer's own space. Boldini's bold, irregular strokes of paint along the right side loosely suggest a doorway or change of wall angle, but at the same time the brushwork creates a sense of movement which pushes the children forward. In their angled postures, with Eddy easily sheltering Jacques, one reads their relative age and personal closeness. With his distinctive, controlled palette of colors and the strong lines of the childrens' middy blouses, Boldini kept interest directed to the boys' faces and their comfortable interaction.

Portrait of Eddy and Jacques Copper is not dated but the apparent ages of the children suggest that Boldini painted them around 1907-08, when Eddy to the left, born 1901, would have been six or seven years old and Jacques, born 1903, four or five.

The present lot has been requested for the exhibition 'Boldini, Helleu, Sem. Protagonisti della Belle Epoque' to take place at the Castello Pasquini, Castiglioncello, Italy, July 7-November 5, 2006.

This catalogue entry was written by Alexandra Murphy.