Portrait der Josefina Alvear de Errazuriz 

Giovanni Boldini painted this portrait of Josefina Alvear de Errazuriz using oil on canvas, a hallmark of academic portraiture. The loose, gestural brushstrokes and muted color palette give the portrait an unfinished quality. Boldini was known for capturing the spirit and movement of his sitters. The visible brushwork almost dematerializes the figure; look at how her dress seems to dissolve into the background. It's a far cry from the highly detailed portraits of earlier eras. The context here is the rise of industrial capitalism. As traditional forms of craft production declined, artists embraced the immediacy and expressiveness of painting, celebrating individual creativity over technical precision. This work speaks to a broader shift in artistic values, from the emphasis on refined skill towards a celebration of the artist's subjective experience. The apparent spontaneity of application should not belie the mastery of the composition or the skill involved in its creation. The context and intention behind the creation are essential to fully understand the artwork's meaning.