Giovanni Boldini (Italian, 1842-1931)

Like Paris, Venice was one of Europe's most cosmopolitan cities in the late nineteenth century. Society figures such as Isabella Stewart Gardner spent months in the city's palazzos, assembling around them a coterie of the world's cultural elite. Henry James, James Tissot, John Singer Sargent and James McNeill Whistler were just some of the famous names to find inspiration there.

It was, however, not only Boldini's taste for wealth and elegance which drew him to La Serenissima. The city's magnificent cultural history, its ever changing light and movement, drew raptures from Boldini in the many letters he wrote to friends from the Grand Hotel.

The present work exudes a vibrancy - almost nervousness - which perfectly conveys the sense of Whistler's comment that 'Venice is an impossible place to sit down and sketch in. There is always something still better round the corner'. The arching bridge in the background (which echoes a leaping horse), typically oblique perspective, and swirling brushstrokes combine to create an explosion of movement in which the background is as animated as the revelling figures in the foreground.

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. 002676.