Count Robert de Montesquiou After Giovanni Boldini Seated Man Portrait Painting

Description

A reproduction oil painting of Robert de Montesquiou After Givanno Boldini, circa last quarter 20th century. Signed lower right by James T. Whitmas. Framed in pin with beveled interior and gold trim.

The painting depicts the count Robert de Montesquiou, a French poet famous for his elegance and eccentricity of his lifestyle. One of the leading names of the social life of Paris in the late 19th century, Montesquiou was an inimitable dandy and an enthusiastic supporter of the aesthetic ideas of John Ruskin and Walter Pater. In the world of Parisian elegance, he stood out for his refined sobriety of dress and his intolerance towards bourgeois mediocrity. He was homosexual, despite the fact that he also had relationships with women.

The commission for the Portrait of Robert de Montesquiou came to Boldini in 1897 from Olga Veil-Picard, a refined noblewomen in Paris. The work, completed in 1897, was exhibited at the Salon de la Societé Internationale des Beaux-Arts and immediately aroused the ardent admiration of Montesquiou.

Condition

Good Condition; Gentle Used

Dimensions

28" x 1.5" x 40"; canvas 24" X 36"