Reclining Nude 1930

Giovanni Boldini’s Reclining Nude is a fever dream of browns, pinks, and reds, built with a sweeping brush, seemingly in a hurry! I wonder what it might have been like to make this painting? What was Boldini thinking? You know, in the studio, you get into these states, where the world condenses down to just you, the brush and the canvas. With a painting like this, you can feel the drama and the intensity. And I can imagine him, you know, in his own time, really going for it with the brush. I imagine him thinking about the history of figure painting but also responding to some new need to collapse form, speed up time, make a painting as raw feeling. Look at that furious, dark scribble in the upper right corner, balanced by her knowing gaze, the one directed right back at you, the viewer. Every artist is in conversation with other artists, and it strikes me that Boldini was trying to be both traditional and modern. It’s a painting about seeing and feeling, not just about what’s literally there.