The tale of a forgotten Boldini painting sold for €2.1 million

"It was a magical moment, you could see that the buyer really liked the painting and paid the price of passion," art expert Marc Ottavi told the French news agency AFP after a painting by the Italian artist Giovanni Boldini recently went under the hammer for €2.1 million.

Image: Giovanni Boldini (1842-1931) from Wikipedia

And it's probably not difficult to understand his delight as the painting was only discovered in June this year, having spent 70 years in a forgotten Parisian apartment.

The painting was of Marthe de Florian, a former muse of the artist, and had belonged to her granddaughter who died earlier this year at the age of 91.

She had maintained the charges on the apartment but had not actually lived there for decades.

It was when the deceased woman's family asked auctioneer Olivier Choppin-Janvry to make an inventory of everything she had left behind that the masterpiece was found.

Because among the treasures and under the dust was what he discovered to be "the portrait of an actress of exceptional beauty who went by the name of Marthe de Florian enshrouded in a pale pink mousseline evening dress."

The only problem was apparently that to begin with Choppin-Janvry wasn't 100 percent certain of its provenance: there was no proof that it had been painted by Boldini and had never been listed among any works by the painter.

After Ottavi was called in, the real investigation began. It soon yielded results.

One of the artist's visiting cards was found with a scribbled message clearly indicating that Boldini had been one of de Florian's lovers.

And then lo and behold, a mention of the portrait was discovered in a book from 1951 by the painter's widow; a mention which was proof positive that the portrait had been painted in 1898 when de Florian was 24 years old.

Armed with that information, the painting went to auction where, from a starting price of €300,000, it was finally sold for a world record for the artist of €2.1 million.

Kandinsky in Paris - battling the crowds

Art lovers will probably be very well aware that there's a major retrospective of the life and works of the Russian-born painter and art theorist, Wassily Kandinsky, showing in the French capital at the moment.

After its huge success at Munich’s Lenbachhaus museum, the exhibition is nearing the end of its run at the Centre Pompidou, where it has been since April 8.

Visitors get the chance to follow chronologically the artist's life in an exhibition which brings together around 100 paintings on loan from "three of the largest public holdings of Kandinsky's work": the Centre Pompidou itself, along with the Städtische Galerie im Lenbachhaus, Munich and New York's Solomon R Guggenheim museum.



As with any major retrospective - and especially one that has been heavily marketed (there are umpteen special travel offers available for tourists to "come and admire") - it is something of a victim of its own success.

The exhibition has of course been "packing 'em in" and it's hard to choose a moment when you might really be able to appreciate it as you might perhaps wish.

For those hoping to spend time admiring Kandinsky's work in relative peace and quiet - forget it. You won't be alone - or probably anywhere near it.

The crowds seem to be enormous, no matter which day of the week you choose, and Sunday mornings especially would appear to be a time to be avoided at all costs.

That seems to be the occasion when young couples, complete with pushchairs and less-than-appreciative infants descend on the place, and even listening to explanations on rented headsets can be a little difficult over the background noise of wailing babies and parents "hushing" rather loudly.

Oh yes and a word on those headsets perhaps.

They are undoubtedly a great way for the lazier, ill-informed or time-pressed visitor to get up to speed quickly on the artist's intent and to put everything into its historical context and "meaning".

They're a common (and welcome?) addition to many a museum.

But as always they should come with a warning. Don't become a slave to them, no matter how convenient they might be.

At the Kandinsky exhibition the numbering sometimes seems a little haywire so you could, for instance, start off the whole tour inadvertently pressing a particular button and discover that you haven't actually begun at the beginning and there other recordings offering descriptions and explanations of earlier works.

It's an easy mistake to make, but fear not. A little wander around will put you on the right track and with a bit of luck, a deal of perseverance and patience, you'll be able to leave the exhibition more informed than when you arrived.

And there's no doubt that should you have managed to shut out all the unwelcome extraneous distractions and immersed yourself in Kandinsky's search for abstraction, you'll have spent a privileged couple of hours in the company of an undeniable master of his genre.

The Kandinsky exhibition runs at the Centre Pompidou in Paris until August 10.