Giovanni Boldini
Italian, 1842–1931
Madame Céline Leclanché
1881
This relatively small portrait depicts Céline Leclanché, the wife of Georges Leclanché, an electrochemist, engineer, and inventor. Boldini enlivens the traditional profile format with freely painted flourishes in the sitter’s collar and in the flowers of her corsage. The work was painted at a time when the artist began to seek out more commissions, before he developed the virtuosic, large-scale style of portraiture for which he became famous.
| Medium | oil on canvas |
| Dimensions | 24 x 16 1/8 in. (61 x 41 cm) Frame: 1 13/16 x 29 3/8 x 21 9/16 in. (4.6 x 74.6 x 54.8 cm) |
| Object Number | 1955.649 |
| Acquisition | Acquired by Sterling and Francine Clark before 1955 |
| Status | On View |
Image Caption
Giovanni Boldini, Madame Céline Leclanché, 1881, oil on canvas. Clark Art Institute, 1955.649
Select Bibliography
Dini, Piero and Francesca Dini. Catalogo Ragionato della Pittura a Olio con un'Ampia Selezione di Pastelli, Acquerelli e Disegni. Volume III of Giovanni Boldini, 18421931: Catalogo ragionato. Torino: Umberto Allemandi & C., 2002.
Cunningham, Charles C., et al. The Elegant Academics: Chroniclers of 19th-Century Parisian Life. Exhibition catalogue. Williamstown, MA: The Clark, 1974.
Milkovich, Michael. Degas and His Friends. Exhibition catalogue. Memphis: Dixon Gallery and Gardens, 1986.
Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute. List of Paintings in the Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute. Williamstown, MA: Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute, 1970.
Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute. List of Paintings in the Sterling & Francine Clark Art Institute. Williamstown, MA: Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute, 1972.
Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute. List of Paintings in the Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute. Williamstown, MA: Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute, 1984.
Kern, Steven, ed. List of Paintings in the Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute. Williamstown, MA: Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute, 1992.
Lees, Sarah. Giovanni Boldini in Impressionist Paris. Exhibition catalogue. With contributions by Richard Kendall and Barbara Guidi. Ferrara, Italy: Ferrara Arte; Williamstown, MA: Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute, 2009.
Lees, Sarah, ed. Nineteenth-Century European Paintings at the Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute. Williamstown, MA: Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute; New Haven and London: distributed by Yale University Press, 2012. Cass, David B. and John Wetenhall. Italian Paintings 1850-1910 from Collections in the Northeastern United States. Exhibition catalogue. Williamstown, MA: Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute, 1982. Panconi, Tiziano. Giovanni Boldini: L'Opera Completa. Firenze: Edifir Edizioni Firenze, 2002.
Lees, Sarah, ed. Nineteenth-Century European Paintings at the Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute. Williamstown, MA: Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute; New Haven and London: distributed by Yale University Press, 2012. Cass, David B. and John Wetenhall. Italian Paintings 1850-1910 from Collections in the Northeastern United States. Exhibition catalogue. Williamstown, MA: Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute, 1982. Panconi, Tiziano. Giovanni Boldini: L'Opera Completa. Firenze: Edifir Edizioni Firenze, 2002.
EUROPEAN PAINTINGS CATALOGUE ENTRY
Provenance
Maurice Leclanché, Paris (d. 1923); [Galerie Lorenceau, Paris, sold to Clark, 14 Feb. 1938, as Portrait]; Robert Sterling Clark (1938–55); Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute, 1955.
