Giovanni Boldini's Madame Josephina Alvear de Errazuriz

Giovanni Boldini's Madame Josephina Alvear de Errazuriz (Frontpage) (more on Giovanni Boldini) (What's New)

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

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