A Corner Of The Artist’s Studio With A Bust Of Leopoldo De Medici 1905

Giovanni Boldini made this watercolour, A Corner Of The Artist’s Studio With A Bust Of Leopoldo De Medici, with a real sense of immediacy. Look at the washiness of the paint, how the whole thing seems to have been set down alla prima, in one go. It’s like he’s trying to capture the fleeting impression of light on these studio objects. I love how he’s handled the bust. It’s there, but only just, rendered with the lightest of touches. The paint is so thin in places, almost transparent, and it’s contrasted with these really juicy dark strokes around the edges. See how the darks really make the bust pop? Then your eye wanders down to the little vase of flowers which is such a delicate touch. The whole thing feels like a conversation about how a painting comes to be, right there on the page. Think about Picasso, a later artist who also made many paintings of his studio, and used classical sculpture as a subject. For both, the studio becomes a stage for exploring the history of art. There’s something so intimate and revealing about these studio scenes; they show us the artist’s world, but also how they see the world.