Portrait of Ena Wertheimer 1902

Giovanni Boldini painted this portrait of Ena Wertheimer with oil on canvas sometime in the late 19th or early 20th century. The whole thing feels like it was made in one breath, you know? There’s a real urgency and lightness in the brushwork. Look at how the layers of translucent, pale pink paint describe the form of the dress, or the wispy strokes of white hinting at lace. The way the pink is blended with greys and browns in the background creates such depth. It’s all about capturing a fleeting moment. There’s a beautiful tension between what's rendered in detail and what dissolves into abstraction. Like, if you look at the face, it’s quite defined, but then the dress is just a blur of brushstrokes. It reminds me of John Singer Sargent – that same bravura handling of paint, that confidence. But Boldini has a sensitivity all his own. It makes you wonder about the nature of portraiture itself, what it means to capture a person’s likeness versus their essence.