Alaide Banti on the bench, 1870-75
Oil on canvas
30×42 cm
Private collection
The young Alaide, daughter of Cristiano Banti, appears here in a spontaneous and confidential pose, which brings to mind the familiarity and the sentimental bond that joined her to the painter in these years. In 1885 Boldini stayed as guest of the Banti family (an Italian figurative painter of academic training, a leading figure in the movement of the Tuscan Macchiaioli) in the villa of Montorsoli where he made other portraits of Alaide and some sketches which he then left as a gift on his departure for Paris. More on this work
Alaide Banti modeled often, not only for her father but also for his the many painter friends.
Boldini loved Alaide very much, and they certainly they had a liaison, but when he asked her in marriage to his Cristiano, she said no. Since then their relationships have became much colder …
Cristiano Banti
Portrait of Alaide Banti in the garden (1870)
Private collection
Giovanni Boldini (31 December 1842 in Ferrara, Italy – 11 July 1931 in Paris, France) was an Italian genre and portrait painter. 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, the son of a painter of religious subjects, and in 1862 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.
Moving to London, Boldini attained success as a portraitist. He completed portraits of premier members of society. From 1872 he lived in Paris, where he became a friend of Edgar Degas. He also became the most fashionable portrait painter in Paris in the late 19th century. He was nominated commissioner of the Italian section of the Paris Exposition in 1889, and received the Légion d’honneur for this appointment.
A Boldini portrait of his former muse Marthe de Florian, a French actress, was discovered in a Paris flat in late 2010, hidden away from view on the premises that were unvisited for 70 years. The portrait has never been listed, exhibited or published and the flat belonged to de Florian’s granddaughter who went to live in the South of France at the outbreak of the Second World War and never returned. A love-note and a biographical reference to the work painted in 1888, when the actress was 24, cemented its authenticity. The full length portrait of the lady in the same clothing and accessories, but less provocative, hangs in the New Orleans Museum of Art. More on Giovanni Boldini
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