After the exhibition dedicated to Wildt in 2012 (which will be the protagonist in 2015 of an exhibition organized by the Musée d'Orsay at the Orangerie in Paris in collaboration with the City of Forlì and the Cassa dei Risparmi di Forlì Foundation), and the following two on the twentieth century and Liberty, the Foundation and the Museums of San Domenico di Forlì continue to explore, through new studies and the rediscovery of little-known works, the figurative culture between the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, proposing an in-depth review of the story for the 2015 exhibition season by Giovanni Boldini certainly the greatest and most prolific of the Italian artists residing in Paris. It is in this ideal space of relationship between Forlì and Paris that our new initiative takes place.
In his very long career, characterized by different periods testifying to an indisputable creative genius and a continuous experimental impulse that will run out on the eve of the First World War, the Ferrarese painter has enjoyed an extraordinary fortune, despite often arousing heated controversy between critics and the public. Loved and discussed by his first true interlocutors, such as Telemaco Signorini and Diego Martelli, he was later understood and adopted in the years of greatest success by the most sophisticated Paris, that of the Goncourt brothers and Proust, Degas and Helleu, the esthete Montesquiou and of the eccentric Colette. Compared to recent exhibitions on the artist, this review differs in a more articulated and in-depth vision of his multifaceted creative activity, intending to enhance not only the paintings, but also the extraordinary graphic production, including drawings, watercolors and engravings. The most recent research by Francesca Dini (curator of the exhibition together with Fernando Mazzocca), allows to enrich the itinerary with the presentation of new works, both on the pictorial side and, in particular, on that of graphics.
One of the greatest strengths, if not the decisive one, of the exhibition will be the reconsideration of Boldini's first season in the years ranging from 1864 to 1870, spent mainly in Florence in close contact with the Macchiaioli. This phase is characterized by the production of small paintings, especially portraits, truly extraordinary in quality and originality.
The first sections, in the sequence of rooms on the ground floor, will be dedicated to the image of the artist evoked through self-portraits and portraits; to the biography in images (people and places frequented); at the atelier; to the graphics so revealing of his incessant creativity.
The following sections, on the first floor, will retrace the great Macchiaioli season through the portraits of friends and collectors.
The first phase following the definitive transfer to Paris will follow, characterized by the production of splendid landscapes and small-format paintings with genre scenes, linked to the privileged relationship with the famous and powerful merchant Goupil.
The scenes of modern life, exteriors and interiors, where Boldini established himself as one of the major interpreters of the French metropolis in the years of its unstoppable rise as world capital of art, culture and worldliness. Finally, the sections dedicated to great portraiture will follow, which see him become the protagonist in a genre, that of the worldly portrait, destined for an extraordinary international fortune. In this regard, the possibility of combining Paolo Troubetzkoy's sculptures with those of Boldini on both an iconographic and formal level will be a novelty for the first time.
Forlì, San Domenico Museums
From 1 February to 14 June 2015
