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PROPERTY FROM A PRIVATE COLLECTION

PRINCESS ANASTASIA OF GREECE (MRS LEEDS)

PRINCESS ANASTASIA OF GREECE (MRS LEEDS)

221 by 119.5cm., 87 by 47in.

signed Boldini l.l.

oil on canvas

PROVENANCE

William Bateman Leeds Jr (1902-1971; the son of the sitter); thence by descent to his son
Sale: Sotheby's, London, 18 June 1985, lot 84
Purchased at the above sale by the present owner

LITERATURE

Emilia Cardona, Boldini: Parisien d'Italie, Paris, 1952, pp. 149-150, discussed
Ettore Camesasca, L'opera completa di Boldini, Milan, 1970, p. 130, no. 542a, illustrating an old black and white photograph of the present work painted over by the artist from the Cardona archives & 542b, photograph of a small sketch for the present work (28.5 by 19.5cm)
Patrick Mauriès, Boldini, Milan, 1970, p. 120, catalogued; p. 121, illustrated in colour
Patrick Mauriès and Alessandra Borgogelli, Boldini, Milan, 1987, p. 121
Boldini, exh. cat., Milano, 1989, p. 308, mentioned
Tiziano Panconi, Giovanni Boldini, L'uomo e la Pittura, Ospedaletto, 1998, p. 236, no. 152/F-16, catalogued and illustrated
Bianca Doria, Giovanni Boldini. Catalogo Generale, Milan, 2000, no. 653, catalogued and illustrated
Tiziano Panconi, Giovanni Boldini. L'opera completa, Florence, 2002, p. 576, catalogued and illustrated
Piero and Francesca Dini, Boldini. Catalogo ragionato, Turin 2002, vol. I, p. 308; vol. III, tome II, p. 573, no. 1119, illustrated

NOTE

Famed the world over for his fabulously sensual and dynamic portraits of the beautiful and wealthy women of the beau monde, Giovanni Boldini imbued his 1917 portrayal of Princess Anastasia of Greece with all the passionate energy, fluid brushstrokes and flatteringly elongated forms that had established him alongside John Singer Sargent as the most successful international portrait painter of his day.

Born Anastasia May Stewart, also known as Nancy Stewart, on 20 January 1883, the future Princess Anastasia of Greece was the daughter of William Charles Stewart and Mary Holden Stewart of Cleveland, Ohio. Twice married, before, Anastasia's engagement in 1914 to Prince Christopher of Greece and Denmark, brother of Constantine I of Greece, created legal complications that delayed their marriage by six years. Her first marriage to George H. Worthington lasted barely four years before she was married to her second husband William Bateman Leeds, a tin millionaire. After his death in 1908, Anastasia inherited his sizeable fortune which in turn she used to help the Greek Royal Family during their exile in the 1920s.

On marrying her third husband on 1 January 1920 in Vevey, Switzerland, Anastasia became daughter-in-law to George I of Greece and Olga Konstantinova Romanov, Queen of Greece and Grand Duchess of Russia, thus re-affirming her status as one of the most wealthy and powerful women of her day. While no children were borne from her third and final marriage, Princess Anastasia and Prince Christopher had a son from her previous marriage, William Bateman Leeds Jr, who was married a year after his mother to Kseniya Georgiievna Romanov, Princess of Russia.

Boldini, never a man to deny his insatiable taste for wealth, beautiful women and blue-blooded aristocracy, relished such a commission. Born in Ferrara, the eighth of thirteen children, Boldini showed a remarkable talent for portraiture from a young age. The tenets of immediacy and spontaneity championed by the Macchiaioli appealed to Boldini during the three years he spent in Florence in the 1860s and made a lasting impression upon his technique transforming his early stiff academic finish into the free spontaneous style that became the hallmark of his work. It was natural therefore that on settling in Paris in 1872, he established close friendships with the leading Impressionist artists of the day including Degas, Manet, Whistler and Sargent.

Following his successful debut at the Paris Salon in 1874, Boldini rapidly grew in popularity, with his dazzling and sophisticated society portraits celebrating the splendour of an ephemeral world finding a ready audience in fin-de-siècle France. By the early 1890s, the artist had securely established himself as the leading portraitist to the world's most fashionable women, an international clientele that included members of the aristocracy, celebrated hostesses, singers, dancers and actresses.

Inspired by the dynamic imposing portraits by the Swedish painter Anders Zorn at the Exposition Universelle in 1890, Boldini carved for himself a new genre of portraiture, one that challenged the viewer and received notions of appropriate composition, format, technique and scale. Popular with other artists of the day, including Boldini's friend Paul César Helleu (fig. 1) and perhaps originally inspired by the master of distorted line J-A-D. Ingres, the contraposto pose or figura serpentinata, with exaggerated curves and elongated limbs adopted by Princess Anastasia in the present work became one of the most distinguishing traits of Boldini's portraits.

The left foot thrust forward to an elegant but determined point sets a diagonal across the picture plane creating a line around which all movement erupts. The angle of the sitter's head, turned gently from the viewer, embodies a demureness and self-awareness that resist the prevailing expectations of royalty, especially in formal portraiture. Concurrently the stance recalls the daring portrait of Madame X by Sargent (fig. 2), in which the sitter is at once beautiful, imperious, and impenetrable.

The fur stole casually grasped in the Princess's right hand suggests, as in Boldini's painting of Mrs Howard Johnston (fig. 3), that the sitter has paused only momentarily to allow the artist and her audience to appreciate her beauty and elegance.

Taking the low vantage point advanced by the Macchiaioli and the Impressionists, Boldini was able to further emphasise the lengthened forms and create a dramatic impression. In his most elaborate and important commissions, as in the present work, this effect was exaggerated by his choice of uniquely long narrow canvases, usually favouring a height of over 2m. The focus on the sitter is enhanced by Boldini's method of contrasting a carefully executed illuminated face and body, in this case employing the dramatic use of white pigment he picked up from Manet, against a loosely blocked-in background rendered with little detail.

Transcending all though, it is the nervous darting brushstrokes loaded with paint and energy that are most readily recognised in the artist's oeuvre. Boldini's powerful strokes, which earned him the title 'Master of the Swish', combine to create the silk evening gown ornamented with a delicate pink rose giving such a sense of immediacy to the present work. Boldini's success was greatly assisted by his appreciation of the elaborate couture dresses favoured by his clients, exploiting the flamboyance of their costumes to generate an equivalent painterly flash and sparkle.

Until its appearance at auction in these rooms in 1985, the present work was known only from a photograph in the archives of Emilia Cardona, Boldini's wife, and a small preliminary sketch. This ancient black and white photograph of Princess Anastasia reveals fascinating further workings of the great artist, who had painted over it with a darker gown and amended other details in the background, suggesting that Boldini may have used such photographs to explore possible alterations to the existing portrait should fashions change, or try out other poses and styles for new clients. As the then sole record of the present work, it was illustrated by the painted over photograph in Ettore Camesasca's 1970 catalogue raisonné on the artist.

Painted in London during the Princess's long engagement to Prince Christopher while she was still known by her late husband's name, Mrs Leeds, the artist used his fluid lines and sensual touch to reveal the sitter's personality. Boldini was able to coax an intimate connection between his model and her audience, whatever her status, that gave his portraits a memorable immediacy and true modernity.

COMPS:
Fig. 1, Paul César Helleu, Daisy, Princess of Pless in the Artist's Studio, Private Collection

Fig. 2, John Singer Sargent, Madame X, 1883-4, The Metropolitan Museum of Art

Fig. 3, Giovanni Boldini, Portrait of Mrs Howard Johnston, 230 by 120cm, Sold: Sotheby's, New York, 20 April 2005 for $1,001,000

Fig. 3, Anders Zorn, Mrs Donald J. Cameron, 1900, 147 by 114cm, Sold: Sotheby's, New York, 21 May 1987