Giovanni Boldini. Giovanni Boldini was an Italian genre and portrait painter who lived and worked in Paris for most of his career.
According to a 1933 article in Time magazine, he was known as the Master of Swish because of his flowing style of painting. Boldini was born in Ferrara, Italy on 31 December 1842.
He was the son of a painter of religious subjects, and the younger brother of architect Luigi Boldini. In 1862, he went to Florence for six years to study and pursue painting.
He only infrequently attended classes at the Academy of Fine Arts, but in Florence, met other realist painters known as the Macchiaioli, who were Italian precursors to Impressionism. Their influence is seen in Boldini's landscapes which show his spontaneous response to nature, although it is for his portraits that he became best known.
Moving to London, Boldini attained success as a portraitist. He completed portraits of distinguished members of society including Lady Holland and the Duchess of Westminster. From 1872 he lived in Paris, where he became a friend of Edgar Degas. He also had a romantic relationship with a French woman named Berthe, who would a regular model for him in the same decade. He had another lover in the Countess Gabrielle de Rasty. He became the most fashionable portrait painter in Paris in the late 19th century, with a dashing style of painting which shows some Macchiaioli influence and a brio r
According to a 1933 article in Time magazine, he was known as the Master of Swish because of his flowing style of painting. Boldini was born in Ferrara, Italy on 31 December 1842.
He was the son of a painter of religious subjects, and the younger brother of architect Luigi Boldini. In 1862, he went to Florence for six years to study and pursue painting.
He only infrequently attended classes at the Academy of Fine Arts, but in Florence, met other realist painters known as the Macchiaioli, who were Italian precursors to Impressionism. Their influence is seen in Boldini's landscapes which show his spontaneous response to nature, although it is for his portraits that he became best known.
Moving to London, Boldini attained success as a portraitist. He completed portraits of distinguished members of society including Lady Holland and the Duchess of Westminster. From 1872 he lived in Paris, where he became a friend of Edgar Degas. He also had a romantic relationship with a French woman named Berthe, who would a regular model for him in the same decade. He had another lover in the Countess Gabrielle de Rasty. He became the most fashionable portrait painter in Paris in the late 19th century, with a dashing style of painting which shows some Macchiaioli influence and a brio r
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