Portrait of Mme. Lina Cavalieri 1901

Giovanni Boldini painted this portrait of Mme. Lina Cavalieri, and it’s really all about the brushwork, isn’t it? It’s loose and lively, and you can see the artist really enjoyed pushing the paint around. Look at the way he’s captured the texture of her fur stole. See how the paint is both thick and thin, transparent and opaque? There’s a real physicality to it. The whole thing is built up of these energetic marks, it's a dance. The thin lines of her pearls, the delicate curve of her neck, and then the dark accents of her dress. All this, combined with the muted color palette, gives her an old Hollywood glamour, with that sense of elegance and melancholy. Boldini reminds me a little of John Singer Sargent. They were both painting society portraits around the same time, but there’s something about Boldini’s touch that feels more modern, more attuned to the act of painting itself. It's all about the joy of applying paint to canvas, and seeing what emerges.