Feminine charm, sumptuous and rustling dresses, the Belle Époque, the salons: it is the overwhelming world of Giovanni Boldini, a genius of painting who more than any other has been able to restore the rarefied atmospheres of an extraordinary era. Literature and fashion, music and luxury, art and bistro mingle in the sensual rhythm of the can-can and produce an extraordinary social and civil rebirth.
A large anthological exhibition by Giovanni Boldini, developed on a chronological and thematic narrative register at the same time. The rich monographic selection of works - of the man who rendered and exalted female beauty in his works, revealing the most intimate and mysterious soul of the noble ladies of the time - is articulated according to the artist's years of activity, but is organized in four fundamental thematic sections to understand the master's expressive parable.
With the patronage of the City of Turin, the exhibition hosted in the Sale delle Arti of the Reggia di Venaria, produced and organized by La Venaria Reale with Arthemisia is curated by Tiziano Panconi and Sergio Gaddi.
The exhibition of the Reggia di Venaria does not stop at the international moment of Boldini's creative experience, which however soon abandoned the Italian avant-garde of the Macchiaioli, but through some important comparison works it also presents 26 works by contemporary artists, such as Cristiano Banti , Vittorio Matteo Corcos, Giuseppe De Nittis, Antonio de La Gandara, Paul-César Helleu, Telemaco Signorini, Ettore Tito, Federigo Zandomeneghi.
The works – including the famous The Red Curtain (1904), Lady Reading (1875), Portrait of a Lady in White with Gloves and Fan (1889), Dark Lady in Evening Dress (1892 ca.), Mademoiselle De Nemidoff ( 1908) and – guest of honor – the symbolic masterpiece of the Belle Époque: the large canvas dedicated to Donna Franca Florio, created between 1901 and 1924 – come from the main international museums such as the Musée des Beaux-Arts of Tours, Galleria Civica of Modern and Contemporary Art of Turin, Frugone Collections – Villa Grimaldi di Fassio of Genoa, Artistic Collections. Banca Carige, the Empedocle Restivo Modern Art Gallery in Palermo, the National Museum of Capodimonte and from prestigious private collections that are difficult to access.
Sixty different lenders, skilfully coordinated in four years of work (this was the preparation time for the exhibition) by Tiziano Panconi – author of Boldini's 2002 catalog raisonné – and Sergio Gaddi.
