Sub Tuum Praesidium

Masquerade

Luisa Casati with artists Giovanni Boldini and Paul-César Helleu. Venice, 1913.

Casati: The Remains of The Days

"Through the number of masquerade ball thrown and paintings commissioned seemed inexhaustible, Luisa's fortunes were not. To her, the idea of "economizing" was not only tasteless, but also utterly meaningless. Even so, the disastrous aftershocks of the Cagliostro Ball were far-reaching. For the next half-decade, Luisa's Accountants battled with the many vendors still unpaid for their services, while forbidding her to make any further purchases without their consent. When the direness of the situation could no longer be ignored, she began to quietly sell off several items of special significance at a fraction of their actual worth. Polish chanteuse Ganna Walska acquired all the artifacts relating to the Comtesse de Castiglione. The 1908 Boldini portrait became part of the Rothschild family's private art collection. One of the Rockefeller clan bought the egyptian statue. A lemon-yellow Hispano-Suiza, formerly used to speedy jaunts between Le Vésinet and Paris, was quickly translated into cash. And couturière Coco Chanel purchased the bronze deer mascots for any further travels with them seemed highly unlikely"

in THE MARCHESA CASATI, Portraits of a Muse

Giovanni Boldini

Giovanni Boldini

Giovanni Boldini, born in 1842, was an Italian genre and portrait painter. According to a 1933 article in Time magazine, he was known as the "Master of Swish" because of his flowing style of painting.

Rita de Acosta Lydig

Princess Marthe BibescoCount Robert de Montesquieu

Boldini was born in Ferrara, the son of a painter of religious subjects, and went to Florence in 1862 to study painting, meeting there the realist painters known as the Macchiaioli. Their influence is seen in Boldini's landscapes which show his spontaneous response to nature, although it is for his portraits that he became best known. He attained great success in London as a portraitist.

Marchesa Luisa Casati

Countess of Zichy
Lady Colin Campbell

From 1872 Boldini lived in Paris, where he became a friend of Edgar Degas. He also became the most fashionable portrait painter in Paris in the late 19th century, with a dashing style of painting which shows some Impressionist influence but which most closely resembles the work of his contemporaries John Singer Sargent and Paul Helleu.

Consuelo, Duchess of Marlborough and sonJohn Singer Sargent

He was nominated commissioner of the Italian section of the Paris Exposition in 1889, and received the Légion d'honneur for this appointment. He died in Paris in 1931.