An exhibition on Giovanni Boldini in Puglia with works coming from Ferrara

It is entitled Boldini. The Spell of Painting. Masterpieces from the Boldini Museum in Ferrara, the exhibition that from December 7, 2019 to May 3, 2020, the Pinacoteca De Nittis in Barletta is hosting among its rooms. Dedicated to Giovanni Boldini (Ferrara, 1842 - Paris, 1931), the exhibition presents works coming from the Boldini Museum in Ferrara to retrace the story of the artist, among the most famous portrait painters of the Belle Époque, famous for having immortalized the protagonists of the time, from Robert de Montesquiou to the Marquise Luisa Casati, making them the very image of that historical and cultural moment.

Born in Ferrara in 1842, Boldini moved to Florence at the age of 22. Here, thanks in part to his proximity to the poetics of the real promoted by the “Macchiaioli,” he distinguished himself for a free and personal interpretation of portraiture. After a brief six-month stay in London in October 1871, Boldini moved to Paris, where he remained until his death, making the French capital his second home. In France, Boldini absorbed the different artistic tendencies in vogue at the time: from the genre and costume painting of Mariano Fortuny and Ernest Meissonier to landscape and especially modern life painting of which he offered his own declination by treasuring the innovative lessons of Édouard Manet and Edgar Degas, as well as the poetics ofImpressionism.

Fruit of a collaboration that will allow the creation of a major exhibition dedicated to De Nittis at the Palazzo dei Diamanti in Ferrara, the exhibition Boldini. L’incantesimo della pittura intends to present the work of this master in every aspect and sphere of his production, from landscape to still life, from city views to portraits, both the intimate ones depicting friends and colleagues and the society ones that brought him success and fortune. Thanks to the breadth of the collection of the Boldini Museum in Ferrara (the largest and most representative public collection named after the painter), a selection of nearly seventy works will make it possible to retrace the main junctures of his artistic career, from the vibrant evidence of his Florentine years to the great paintings of his maturity, iconic works of the Belle Époque such as Little Subercaseaux, the “fashionable” portraits of the Countess de Leusse, Princess Eulalia and Firework, or the magnetic effigy of the Lady in Pink, emblematic of a new representation, nervous and elegant, of modern femininity.

The two exhibitions organized in Barletta and Ferrara represent the virtuous epilogue of a long-considered project strongly desired by the two museum institutions and the full implementation of a fruitful cultural and professional exchange between public institutions.

“Artistic heritage is a common good and as such it is important that it be admired and appreciated by so many,” says Barletta Mayor Cosimo Cannito, “and in prestigious venues such as the Palazzo dei Diamanti in Ferrara or Palazzo Della Marra in Barletta, given also the affinity of the artists involved and the research projects of the Giovanni Boldini Museum and our Pinacoteca. For De Nittis we have great ambitions, above all that of giving him the right international dimension the same one that characterized the work and life of the artist from Barletta.”

Pictured: Giovanni Boldini, The Lady in Pink (Olivia Concha de Fontecilla) (1916; oil on canvas, 163 x 113 cm; Ferrara, Museo Giovanni Boldini)

An exhibition on Giovanni Boldini in Puglia with works coming from Ferrara

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