Comte Robert de Montesquiou, who had immense influence, was an important and early supporter of Antonio de la Grandara. He would certainly have referred patrons in his direction. As a sign of their relative closeness, Whistler used La Grandara's studio (in Paris) to paint his own version of Montesquiou.  

One can see La Grandara moving in the same circles with another contemporaries such as John Singer Sargent. Both went to the Ecole des Beaux-Arts more or less at the same time (La Gandara entered the school in 1878). Sargent and he shared many common friends: Pozzi, Helleu, Boldini, Rodin and Léon Delafosse. The latter (Delafosse) was very close and both fell out of favour with Robert de Montesquiou around the same time.  

A text describing the "revenge" Montesuiou extracted on these two artist is aptly highlighted in Marcel Proust, Correspondance.   
      

Giovanni Boldini (1845 -1931) 
Italian-French portrait painter 
  
Count Robert de Montesquiou  
1897  

Note:  
Special thanks to Xavier Mathieu, of France, a friend of the JSS Gallery, for help with this. 
 

• See more on Antonio de la Gandara
• See Gabriella Alù great website on Marcel Proust (Italian)