An exhibition in Pistoia on the early production of Giovanni Boldini

A monographic exhibition intimately linked to the territory is the one that the city of Pistoia dedicates to Giovanni Boldini (Ferrara, 1842 - Paris, 1931) from September 9, 2017 to January 6, 2018 at the Museums of the Ancient Palace of Bishops: the exhibition is entitled GIOVANNI BOLDINI. The Season of the Falconiera, is curated by Francesca Dini with the collaboration of Andrea Baldinotti and Vincenzo Farinella, and focuses on Boldini’s early production, particularly on the cycle of tempera murals that the Ferrara painter painted during his Tuscan period (in 1868 to be exact) for the dining room of Villa La Falconiera, owned of his patron Isabelle Robinson Falconer, an Englishwoman but resident in Pistoia (and with whom the painter moreover had rather stormy relations). These are works depicting local landscapes: countryside traversed by oxen, seascapes, work in the fields. They are valuable paintings because they represent a unique testimony in the artistic career of Boldini, who shortly thereafter, in 1871, would move to Paris and become the painter we all know today.

The paintings of the Falconiera were long forgotten: the rediscovery was due to Giovanni Boldini’s wife, Emilia Cardona Boldini, who, following the death of her husband in 1931, wanted to go in search of those paintings that the artist had executed when he was only twenty-six years old and whose memory had been lost, so much so that it was not even known for sure in which city they were located. The story goes that Emilia came to Pistoia collecting various testimonies: once she found the villa, which in the meantime had known changes of owners and had been transformed, she noticed that the dining room decorated by Boldini had become a farm shed. In 1938 his widow bought the building and left Paris to move to Pistoia, and upon his passing she donated the villa to the city of Pistoia. For conservation reasons, in 1974 the paintings were torn out and brought to the Museum of the Ancient Palace of the Bishops, where the public can still admire them today: they will be the focus of the exhibition, partly because new documentary discoveries have made it possible to clarify the role of Isabella Robinson Falconer and the iconographic choices in the cycle.

The exhibition aims to delve into the artist’s early production, up to his move to Paris, when he used to move between Pistoia, Florence and Castiglioncello. Thus, sixteen works painted between 1964 and 1971 will be on display: these are the works of the artist’s Macchiaioli period, also witnessed by the portraits of some of the protagonists of that season, such as Telemaco Signorini (the portrait is from 1870) and Cristiano Banti (from 1866, like Signorini’s one preserved in Florence, at Palazzo Pitti). Among the works on display are Portrait of Alaide Banti in a White Dress (1866), Spanish General (1867-1868), considered a masterpiece of Boldini’s youthful portraiture, Marina of 1870, and Young Page Playing with a Greyhound (1869).

The exhibition was strongly supported by the Cassa di Risparmio di Pistoia e della Lucchesia. Says its president, Alessio Colomeiciuc: “The exhibition on Boldini achieves two essential objectives: not only does it enrich the range of initiatives to enhance the artistic heritage of Pistoia by proposing the name of a painter of certain success, but it also guarantees the best celebration of a unique episode in the history of Italian 19th century art, represented by the evocative Tempere murarie executed by Boldini inside Villa Falconiera. I am pleased that our bank has been able, on this occasion as well, to combine credit activity with the cultural promotion of the territory, making possible a project of great quality and beauty such as this unprecedented exhibition.”

The exhibition is open daily, with closing days on Mondays and Wednesdays. Hours: Tuesday, Thursday and Friday from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m., Saturday and Sunday from 10 a.m. to 7:30 p.m. Tickets: €7 (full museum + exhibition), €5 (full exhibition), €5 reduced (reduced museum + exhibition), €3 reduced (exhibition only), €1 for schools. Group visits allowed for a maximum of 20 people, reservation recommended. Catalog published by Sillabe. Arrangements by Luigi Cupellini, educational activities by Opera Laboratori Fiorentini - Civita. Info and reservations: 0573 369275 (call on opening days), email anticopalazzodeivescovi [at] operalaboratori.com.

Image: Giovanni Boldini, Marina (1870; oil on panel; courtesy Galleria Bottegantica - Milan)

An exhibition in Pistoia on the early production of Giovanni Boldini

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