Reader Valine76 commented thus on the weekend post on Boldini: “Vera de Nimidoff (1879-1963) was certainly done a favor by Boldini’s portrait of her (1908).”
Indeed he did, but not in the way one might think. Here are the portrait and the photo, l to r:
If you look closely at Nemidoff’s face (between portrait and photo), you can see that he captured it rather well. What Boldini did was to take her hair out of that ridiculous corseted Edwardian hairstyle and tousle it into that wild, wanton bush.
Now throw in a little non-Edwardian off-the-shoulder decolletage and a sexy pose with hooded eyes…
…and there you have it: a perfect Boldini portrait.
No wonder they all loved him and he had more business than he could handle.
Wild, wanton bush? He also did nudes you say?
Damn! Beat me to it!
Goodness.
With her chest out in the breeze like that, dear Vera could catch her death of cold!