拍品專文
This is one of the earliest examples, not only of a double portrait in Boldini's oeuvre, but also of a work, which portrays the sitter in motion. This frenetic style began following his arrival in Paris in 1871, with scenes of the Place Pigalle, the Place Clichy, and the Folies-Bergère. The first examples of a commissioned double portraits from this period are the Subercaseuse brothers (1887), and a portrait of Madame Poidatz and her daughter, Hellen, (1889) (Dutilleul-Francoeur Collection, Paris). Both are presented in traditional pose, although in the latter the child's arm is outstretched, as if impatient to leave. The composition of our work is unusual in that Madame Hugo appears to be casually crossing the picture plane, halted only by her son. As with The Black Sash (see lot 9), Boldini creates the effect of photography, by capturing the mother and child 'en passant', probably deriving from the ideas of Degas.
Wildensteins' title Mme. Jean Hugo and her son in the 1933 exhibition has caused confusion as to the identities of the sitters. Although the boy would have been approximately the correct age to be the Surrealist painter Jean Hugo, the more likely suggestion is that the mother is Madame Jeanne Hugo (1869-1941), the sister of Georges Victor-Hugo, and her son Charles.She was married three times. The first to Léon Daudet (m.1891-1895), by whom she had one son. Their marriage was recounted by Edmond de Concourt witness to the groom and co-author with his brother of the celebrated journals of the Belle Epoque. Goncourt complained that there was "too much advertising about this wedding!... Two thousand people gathered at six o'clock at the town hall with extraordinary ostentation. The union of two great republican names; it was thus a quasi-official ceremony." However, he also adds that "the world in this room is tremendous..., it is the entire political, the entire literary world, the complete world of elegance in a word, all the worlds of Paris." Every journal covered the event.Le Figaro went to the point of publishing the list of presents to the young couple, while the city of Paris paid for the flowers and the Orchestre l'amoureux was assembled to play.Léon, a childhood friend of Proust, was the son of Alphonse Daudet, author of Les Lettres de mon moulin (1866), the ironic vignettes and observations of Provençale life. This portrait would have been painted during her marriage to Jean Charcot (m.1896-1906). The use of her maiden name in the title may have been at Rothschild's suggestion, as at the time of the 1933 exhibition, she was a widow. Emilia Cardona writes of another double portrait of Pauline Victor-Hugo, wife of Georges, portrayed with her son on her lap (whereabouts unknown), dateable to 1899. The artist was to paint several portraits of Pauline, as well as Georges Hugo's second wife, and her first cousin, Dora. Georges was the grandson of Victor Hugo, and in recognition of his grandfather's contribution to the Arts, he was granted the right to use Victor-Hugo as a surname, in 1902.
This is the only recorded example of Boldini painting a child in a sailor suit, a costume which had become fashionable in the 1890's. The apparel was also popular with Sargent, who painted Mrs. Edward Davis and her son Livingston in 1890 (Los Angeles County Museum) and the Sitwell Family in 1900 (Renishaw, Derbyshire, Trustees of the Sitwell Settled Estates), paintings in which the boys are similarly dressed.
Wildensteins' title Mme. Jean Hugo and her son in the 1933 exhibition has caused confusion as to the identities of the sitters. Although the boy would have been approximately the correct age to be the Surrealist painter Jean Hugo, the more likely suggestion is that the mother is Madame Jeanne Hugo (1869-1941), the sister of Georges Victor-Hugo, and her son Charles.She was married three times. The first to Léon Daudet (m.1891-1895), by whom she had one son. Their marriage was recounted by Edmond de Concourt witness to the groom and co-author with his brother of the celebrated journals of the Belle Epoque. Goncourt complained that there was "too much advertising about this wedding!... Two thousand people gathered at six o'clock at the town hall with extraordinary ostentation. The union of two great republican names; it was thus a quasi-official ceremony." However, he also adds that "the world in this room is tremendous..., it is the entire political, the entire literary world, the complete world of elegance in a word, all the worlds of Paris." Every journal covered the event.Le Figaro went to the point of publishing the list of presents to the young couple, while the city of Paris paid for the flowers and the Orchestre l'amoureux was assembled to play.Léon, a childhood friend of Proust, was the son of Alphonse Daudet, author of Les Lettres de mon moulin (1866), the ironic vignettes and observations of Provençale life. This portrait would have been painted during her marriage to Jean Charcot (m.1896-1906). The use of her maiden name in the title may have been at Rothschild's suggestion, as at the time of the 1933 exhibition, she was a widow. Emilia Cardona writes of another double portrait of Pauline Victor-Hugo, wife of Georges, portrayed with her son on her lap (whereabouts unknown), dateable to 1899. The artist was to paint several portraits of Pauline, as well as Georges Hugo's second wife, and her first cousin, Dora. Georges was the grandson of Victor Hugo, and in recognition of his grandfather's contribution to the Arts, he was granted the right to use Victor-Hugo as a surname, in 1902.
This is the only recorded example of Boldini painting a child in a sailor suit, a costume which had become fashionable in the 1890's. The apparel was also popular with Sargent, who painted Mrs. Edward Davis and her son Livingston in 1890 (Los Angeles County Museum) and the Sitwell Family in 1900 (Renishaw, Derbyshire, Trustees of the Sitwell Settled Estates), paintings in which the boys are similarly dressed.