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Lot Essay
Boldini moved to Paris in 1871, after a short but fruitful sojourn in London. Here he reached the peak of his creativity and success, becoming best known for his portraits of major figures from high society and the arts. Boldini gravitated around artists such as Edgar Degas, Paul-César Helleu, John Singer Sargent and James McNeill Whistler. Together, these artists embodied the elegance of the Belle Époque, creating dashing, mouvementé works which flattered their sitters and captured the frenetic ambience of the time.
If Paris was the city of the age, the Moulin Rouge, opened in 1889, was one of its strongest magnets for high society. More subtly than Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec, who also famously drew inspiration in the Paris demi-monde, behind his dashing brushwork Boldini also conjured up the decadence that lay just below the surface of bourgeois respectability. In the present painting, for example, a courtesan is seen making advances towards a seated figure in a top hat.
In works of this type by Boldini exhibit a directness that is refreshingly honest in comparison to the more contrived romantic genre scenes he painted at the time for the art dealer Adolphe Goupil, so influential with the Parisian buyers of the time.
We are grateful to Dott.ssa Francesca Dini for having confirmed the authenticity of the present lot, which will be sold with photo-certificate no. 002675.
If Paris was the city of the age, the Moulin Rouge, opened in 1889, was one of its strongest magnets for high society. More subtly than Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec, who also famously drew inspiration in the Paris demi-monde, behind his dashing brushwork Boldini also conjured up the decadence that lay just below the surface of bourgeois respectability. In the present painting, for example, a courtesan is seen making advances towards a seated figure in a top hat.
In works of this type by Boldini exhibit a directness that is refreshingly honest in comparison to the more contrived romantic genre scenes he painted at the time for the art dealer Adolphe Goupil, so influential with the Parisian buyers of the time.
We are grateful to Dott.ssa Francesca Dini for having confirmed the authenticity of the present lot, which will be sold with photo-certificate no. 002675.