拍品专文
La Giovinetta Errazuriz was the daughter of Josephina Alvear de Errazuriz (see lot 7) and the great niece of Eugenia Errazuriz (loc. cit. ). Giovinetta was ten years old when this portrait was painted in 1892, and time has not diminished its impact. The work was exhibited in Venice the same year as his celebrated pastel portrait of Verdi, and both critics and artists, flocked to see the two pictures. The effect of Giovinetta's portrait was extraordinary. Emilia Cardona describes the reaction. "The notorious centimeter of skin between the top of the black stocking and the hem of the white dress created a much greater scandal in the audience than some of the opulent nudes.
This discreet glimpse of a child's leg, hardly visible and purely artistic, became the reference for "l'art diabolique" attributed to Boldini and which was soon widespread...
For the moment, however, these criticisms are enough. It is probably as a result of this ambiguous reputation that Queen Marguerite of Italy did not offer Boldini the opportunity to paint her portrait, despite the efforts of the Marquis de Rudin.
And its too bad! The first queen of the young Italy should have been painted by the first Italian portrait painter of its time. Maybe the sovereign understood poetry better than painting. And, besides, Boldini was never a court painter."
Dario Cecchi's account of the sitting and his comments are equally expressive.
"Free and easy, a cynical character like Boldini takes what there is to be had and certainly does not throw away, for example, a client like Signora Josephina de Alvear de Errazuriz and her charming ten-year old daughter.
The two Chileans posed for their portraits at Boulevard Berthier. Boldini took particular care with the portrait of the young girl, even having the Restoration settee upon which she is seated newly upholstered. The girl, her intense gaze flashing out from the dim shadows of a complicated headdress trimmed with heavy ruffles, sits in her pale dress, her slender legs, encased in black cotton stockings, straddling the divan. And Boldini cannot resist representing a morbidly spicy detail: the top of the black stocking that sheathes the right leg.
It has been said that this is most chaste. It has also been said that it is the first step towards pornography."
This may seem an exaggeration, but the exposed leg and the ambiguous apparel clearly disturbed the public of the 1890's. Indeed, Giovinetta is too old for a bonnet of the type depicted and too young for the type of underclothing. The umbrella also acts as a repoussoir guiding the viewer's eye along her legs, while Giovinetta's direct look is disarming, confrontational and far from innocent.
The previous year, Boldini had exhibited the portrait of The Young Subercaseuse (Museo Boldini, Ferrara), painted on the opposite side of the same divan in the Salon. While the boy lacks the sensuality of Giovinetta, both sitters seem to reject the constraints of their social situations, by being portrayed as the impatient child and young coquette.
Boldini also produced a study of the portrait of Giovinetta in his studio, emphasizing the importance the artist placed on this work. This concept recalls Il Pastello bianco, painted four years earlier. In this case, the artist painted the sitter Emiliana Concha de Ossa, seen from behind contemplating the portrait. (Museo Boldini, Ferrara).
Despite the public reaction to this image, the picture helped to establish Boldini as the foremost European portrait painter of the period. Thus, his sensual (if not "diabolique") style, although rejected by the Italian Court, embodied the mood of the period and provided the artist with commissions from the upper echelons of Society for the next thirty years.
This discreet glimpse of a child's leg, hardly visible and purely artistic, became the reference for "l'art diabolique" attributed to Boldini and which was soon widespread...
For the moment, however, these criticisms are enough. It is probably as a result of this ambiguous reputation that Queen Marguerite of Italy did not offer Boldini the opportunity to paint her portrait, despite the efforts of the Marquis de Rudin.
And its too bad! The first queen of the young Italy should have been painted by the first Italian portrait painter of its time. Maybe the sovereign understood poetry better than painting. And, besides, Boldini was never a court painter."
Dario Cecchi's account of the sitting and his comments are equally expressive.
"Free and easy, a cynical character like Boldini takes what there is to be had and certainly does not throw away, for example, a client like Signora Josephina de Alvear de Errazuriz and her charming ten-year old daughter.
The two Chileans posed for their portraits at Boulevard Berthier. Boldini took particular care with the portrait of the young girl, even having the Restoration settee upon which she is seated newly upholstered. The girl, her intense gaze flashing out from the dim shadows of a complicated headdress trimmed with heavy ruffles, sits in her pale dress, her slender legs, encased in black cotton stockings, straddling the divan. And Boldini cannot resist representing a morbidly spicy detail: the top of the black stocking that sheathes the right leg.
It has been said that this is most chaste. It has also been said that it is the first step towards pornography."
This may seem an exaggeration, but the exposed leg and the ambiguous apparel clearly disturbed the public of the 1890's. Indeed, Giovinetta is too old for a bonnet of the type depicted and too young for the type of underclothing. The umbrella also acts as a repoussoir guiding the viewer's eye along her legs, while Giovinetta's direct look is disarming, confrontational and far from innocent.
The previous year, Boldini had exhibited the portrait of The Young Subercaseuse (Museo Boldini, Ferrara), painted on the opposite side of the same divan in the Salon. While the boy lacks the sensuality of Giovinetta, both sitters seem to reject the constraints of their social situations, by being portrayed as the impatient child and young coquette.
Boldini also produced a study of the portrait of Giovinetta in his studio, emphasizing the importance the artist placed on this work. This concept recalls Il Pastello bianco, painted four years earlier. In this case, the artist painted the sitter Emiliana Concha de Ossa, seen from behind contemplating the portrait. (Museo Boldini, Ferrara).
Despite the public reaction to this image, the picture helped to establish Boldini as the foremost European portrait painter of the period. Thus, his sensual (if not "diabolique") style, although rejected by the Italian Court, embodied the mood of the period and provided the artist with commissions from the upper echelons of Society for the next thirty years.