Giovanni Boldini's The Piano Duet and The Lesson of Piano
 (Frontpage) (more on Giovanni Boldini)  (Thumbnail Index)
 
 
 
 
The Piano Duet 
before July 28, 1886 
Oil 
Size?
 
The Lesson of Piano 
also entitled  
The Future Wife of Paul Helleu 
before July 28, 1886 
Oil 
Size? 
(Black and white image)
The Piano Duet 
and 
The Lesson of Piano
Giovanni Boldini -- Italian-French portrait painter
Owner's? (Maybe Gruyere Castle)
jpg: artecultura
 
(Paul César Helleu married Alice Guerin, on July 28, 1886, so the paintings are prior to that) 

Anita Petrovski, in his article "The Lesson of Piano - Femininity According to Giovanni Boldini" writes about the photographic qualities of these two paintings. The older woman, I don't think is ever identified, but the woman on the right is of Alice Guerin playing a duet in a more conventional pose; but even here, Boldini paints this stunning beauty (and by all accounts she was incredibly beautiful) with a deep décolletage of her dress and the exposed skin of her delicate shoulders.  

In the second painting (on the right) Boldini has her stretching from the concentration of playing. Though the stretch is a natural one, the pose is not. Instantly, the second painting is charged with intimacy.  The motion of her arms are abbreviated in a Boldini signature fashion of elongated flowing strokes. The hands of the older woman, however, are treated exactly the same as in the first. The subject of these two paintings, together, is unquestionably the beautiful Alice. This is quintessential French La Belle Époque style of female sensuality. 
(Anita Petrovski, universitas friburgensis juin 2002) 

It's a shame that these are the best images available on the net of these two. 
 

Paul César Helleu  
    
Rêverie (Daydream)    
1901 
(Alice wife of Paul Helleu) 
 
 

Notes 
 
 

 
 


By:  Natasha Wallace
Copyright 1998-2003 all rights reserved
Created 11/17/2003
Updated 11/17/2003