Giovanni Boldini (Ferrara 1842-1931 Paris)

One of the most sought after society portraitists of his day, Giovanni Boldini captured the likenesses of the Duchess of Marlborough, Count Robert de Montesquiou, the Marchesa Luisa Casati, John Singer Sargent and many other notables. Here he portrays the fiery Princess Catherine Radziwill, who became a member of one of Eastern Europe's most prominent families by marriage at the age of fifteen. Radziwill became a familiar name in the United States when Stanislaw Radziwill, the grandson of Princess Catherine, married Lee Bouvier, the sister of Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis.

With his distinctive energetic brushstrokes, Boldini renders the Princess with a swirling palette of grays and blacks punctuated by the brilliant splash of red and pink in her lips and collar.