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Madame Josephina Alvear de Errazuriz
Giovanni Boldini -- Italian-French portrait painter
1892
Private collection
Oil on canvas
201.3 by 101 cm. (79 1/4 by 39 3/4 in.)
signed and dated Boldini/1892 (lower left)
jpg: community webshots
 
 


Giovanetta Erraruiz 
1892
(daughter of 
Madame Josephina Alvear de Errazuriz)


From: Sothebys
In 1892, Boldini was commissioned to paint the portraits of Josephina Alvear de Errazuriz and her daughter Giovinetta (see lot 124), presumably a reverberation from the artist's successful suite of portraits for the family of Josephina's sister-in-law, Amalia Subercasseux (née Errazuriz), wife of the Chilean Ambassador to France, completed in 1887.

An important factor in Boldini's sucess was his appreciation of his sitters' couture gowns and his ability to present dresses as well as women to best advantage. As in Portrait of Josephina Alvear de Errazuriz, he favored simple settings and elegant furniture that might be inventively colored (on the canvas) to complement a model's complexion or her choice of portrait costume. He frequently worked elaborate variations on daring color chords, as in the interplay of deep greens and wheaten-golds in Madame Alvear's striped satin dress, heightened by the yellow-green cushions of the daybed. But most important, Boldini was able to coax an intimate connection between his model and her audience that gave his portraits a memorable immediacy and true modernity.

This catalogue entry was written by Alexandra Murphy.
(
Sothebys

John Singer Sargent 
 
Madame Errazuriz  
c. 1880-82 
 

Notes
Special thanks to Stephanie for sending me a link to this panting.

Provanance

Sold by the artist directly to Baron Maurice de Rothschild
Thence by descent
Sale, Christie's, New York, November 1, 1995, lot 7 (purchased by Edmond Safra for Republic National Bank)

Exhibitions

Paris, Exposition Nationale des Beaux-Arts, May 1892, no. 137
New York, Wildenstein and Co., Loan Exhibition of Paintings by Boldini 1845-1931, March - April, 1933, no. 13

Bibliography

E. Cardona, Boldini Parisien d'Italie, Milan, 1952, p. 145
G. Piazza, Boldini, Milan, 1989, p. 298
B. Doria, Giovanni Boldini Catalogo generale dagli archivi Boldini, Milan, 2000, no. 297, illustrated
P. Dini, F. Dini, Boldini Catalogo ragionato, Turin 2002, vol.II, p. 328, no. 605, illustrated
F. Panconi, Boldini L'opera completa, Florence, 2002, p. 337, illustrated

Sale
Offered for sale at Sotheby's New York, 26 Oct 04, Sale N08019, Lot 130, estimated 300,000—600,000 USD

 


By:  Natasha Wallace
Copyright 1998-2002 all rights reserved
Created 6/28/2002