Giovanni Boldini (Italian, 1842-1931)

The end of the 1870s marked a transition point in Boldini's Parisian style, which evolved from the small commissioned paintings and watercolours executed for Goupil (see lot 1), into the glamorous swagger portaits of European high society, which defined his oeuvre after 1890.

During this period, Boldini maintained the sense of the picturesque of his earlier works but sought out his subject matter from the people and places he frequented in Paris. This resulted in a gallery of candid portraits, ranging from artists, actresses and singers, to bourgeois women painted in a direct, but light-hearted fashion.

The present painting is notable for its decorative qualities, the arabesque of flowers in the background echoing the embroidery of the sitter's clothing, its deft touch and bright colours harking back to Boldini's earlier watercolours. The sitter, however, is planted by the weight of her dark features and clothing, which have distinctly Spanish overtones (hence the title first ascribed to the painting by Cailleux), reflecting an interest that Boldini evinced in the country, its costumes and people during this period. Indeed, although it appears that he may not have completed a trip to Spain that he had planned in 1877, his oeuvre continued to reveal a Spanish influence. Paintings such Portrait of Cecelia de Madrazo Fortuny (the wife of the Spanish artist) show in particular the influence of the work of Velasquez, revealed, most notably, in the artist's exploration of luminous black tones, which would later become such a dominant feature of his grand manner portraits.

This work is sold with a photo-certificate no. 2555 by Francesca Dini, whom we would like to thank for her assistance in cataloguing this lot.