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PROPERTY FROM AN AMERICAN PRIVATE COLLECTION

ITALIAN, 1842-1931
A LADY ADMIRING A FAN

A LADY ADMIRING A FAN

measurements
24 1/4 by 16 in.

alternate measurements
61.6 by 40.6 cm

signed Boldini (lower right)

oil on canvas

This catalogue entry was written by Alexandra Murphy.

PROVENANCE

Private Collection (and sold: Sotheby's, New York, May 24, 1995, lot 237, illustrated)
Acquired at the above sale by the present owner

LITERATURE

Tiziano Panconi, Giovanni Boldini, L'Opera Completa, Florence, 2002, p. 191, illustrated
Piero Dini and Francesca Dini, Giovanni Boldini, 1842-1931, Catalogo Ragionato, Turin, 2002, vol. III, p. 132, no. 224, illustrated p. 133

NOTE

In A Lady Admiring a Fan, Boldini offered his viewer a glimpse into the privileged world of a beautiful parisienne whose deceptively casual day-dress epitomizes the magic and manner with which Paris has captivated the rest of the world for centuries. Surrounded by expensive furniture and beautiful objects, in an elegant, understated interior, Boldini's young woman gazes pensively at a folding fan, perhaps recalling a recent evening's flirtation (such fans were part of a lady's necessary accessories for an outing to opera or bal). Or perhaps she is thinking of an absent admirer -- as objets de luxe, ivory-handled fans were expensive tokens of affection. Although Boldini painted the details of costume and decor in A Lady Admiring a Fan with exceptional care, he left enough unsaid about his model and her life to allow his audience to project onto her nearly any dream they might choose. One was certainly welcome to see her as a wealthy young innocent on the morning after her introduction to society; but Boldini tucked in just a few clues to suggest she is a mondaine (a woman of the world), whose social situation is far more precarious.

Giovanni Boldini painted A Lady Admiring a Fan in 1877 or 1878, as formal portraiture was taking on new importance in his career and as he was turning away from the small costume dramas or scenes of modern anecdote that had already won his place among the most stylish of contemporary painters in Paris. A Lady Admiring a Fan is one of his largest scenes of fashionable genre painting, and in many aspects the painting is a demarcation between Boldini's first successes and the superb portraits of social leaders and women of the world that would mark his triumph in the next decade. The tightly controlled palette that emphasizes a few distinctly fashionable colors; the arrangement of architectural elements or select pieces of furniture and bric-a-brac that convey an atmosphere of wealth and discernment; and the skillful deployment of highlights and structural lines to draw attention to his beautiful model -- in A Lady Admiring a Fan Boldini fixed the fundamental qualities that would define his distinctive style.

Everything in A Lady Admiring a Fan suggests restrained sophistication. The young lady's beautifully-crafted costume of lush red-brown velvet with printed or damask panels is up-to-the-moment: mauve was the newly invented color of the decade, the swag of fabric that drapes down her back is a farewell gesture to the soon-to-be outmoded bustle. The delicate Sèvres cache-pot, the rare wood (not gilt) chair, and the inset panelling of the door reflect the height of French tradition but in the specific variations appropriate to the nineteenth-century's revival of grand siècle styles. The Meiji bronze and cloisonné sculpture is a salute to the craze for japonisme ushered in by the international fairs that crowned Paris as destination of choice for the world's most knowledgeable travelers. Finally, the unsheathed sword lying across the piano and the small black mask or domino nearby are the most basic elements of costume for an opéra bal, the pre-lenten fancy dress mêlées that were a defining event of the Parisian social whirl and an endless fascination to the city's foreign visitors. Men and women of all ages and classes attended these late-night galas during 'the season'. Long notorious as a meeting ground for men of wealth and women of easy virtue, by the 1870s, the costume balls had become a spectator sport, as well. In the marginally quieter galleries above the wanton dancing displays of the main floor, a masked young lady of independent mind might watch a forbidden revelry or even indulge in a private liaison that was otherwise denied her.

Tiziano Panconi identifies the young woman in A Lady Admiring a Fan as Berthe, Boldini's mistress and model during the 1870s; and certainly her hair color and features are consistent with other paintings that Panconi stresses were posed by Berthe.