Fashion and Glamourportrait.^32 Boldini painted many leading exponents of café society, as well
as prominent artists and some aristocrats. His favourite subjects were mainly
wealthy women, who revelled in the sexy, scandalous air he conferred on
them and which they took to be quintessentially Parisian. He achieved this
effect in part by elongating them and twisting their bodies as though they
were rotating on an axis. Many of his subjects courted notoriety, like the
eccentric Marquess Luisa Casati and Lady Colin Campbell, protagonist of
one of the most controversial divorce cases of Victorian England. Being
painted by Boldini conferred on them a theatrical kudos and turned them
into icons of their era.
Boldini was not only a fashionable painter but also a painter of fashion.
He was a master at conveying the effects of a variety of materials and
accessories and he was careful to ensure his subjects were clothed in a
flattering way. By working quickly and employing indefinite slapdash strokes,
often sharply diagonal, he created an air of movement and frivolity. The
result was a dazzling surface appearance that was extravagant and dramatic.
Worth, Doucet and other designers were happy to lend him their creations
because they knew that good publicity could derive from being incorporated
into what Boldini’s biographer describes as ‘a highly potent pictorial maison
de beauté’.^33 The flamboyance of Boldini’s work owed much to fashion and
to the creative collaboration he forged with the designers who produced the
luxurious gowns women wore to society occasions. He was not interested in
psychology or, in general, in character, but in image and effect. The concern
with the exterior and artifice led some critics to label his work kitsch.
Certainly, they owed more to popular taste than to any idea of refinement.
Many Boldini portraits were displayed publicly in salons, they were
illustrated in newspapers and openly discussed. Just as, in later years, society
photographers would contribute to the celebrity of their subjects, so too did
a striking portrait by Boldini lend allure and status. Thus the painter may be
said to have contributed to the birth of modern celebrity culture. Around
the turn of the century, the interlocking spheres of high society, fashion, theatre
and the demi-monde gave rise to figures who were the object of gossip and
curiosity. Confirmation of this development is provided by the 1889 Paris
Exposition, which featured a circular building holding a canvas entitled ‘Le
Tout Paris’. Customers paid in large, but not overwhelming, numbers, to see
around 800 portraits of the rich and the beautiful. ‘Like other panoramas,’
- For a detailed analysis of Boldini, see Stephen Gundle, ‘Mapping the Origins of Glamour:
Giovanni Boldini, Paris and the Belle Epoque’,Journal of European Studies, 29 (1999), pp.
269–95. - Cecchi, Dario, Giovanni Boldini, Turin: UTET, 1962, p. 274.