Art, music, whatever
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:
Went back among my old posts to look something up, and ended up here, where I spoke about Giovanni Boldini.
Well, so much for that search. I ended up wandering along the highways, byways, trains of thought and their branch lines that is Teh Intarwebz.
So: some more Boldini pics — just not the commissioned portraits this time. I do love how he paints women’s faces, though:
But it’s when he gets naughty that I like him the most:
And then there was this one, which caused quite a scandal in its time:
Not yer typical society portrait, is it?
…and even some of those weren’t quite the typical Victoriana, like this one of Madame de Nemidoff:
or of Madame Pages:
Brilliant.
Sheesh… I do a piece on Romanian gymnast Nadia Comeneci — and now everybody’s got to get in on the act.
To be fair, though: Tom Leonard’s article is more far substantial than mine (which was just an excuse to leer at her grownup tatas).
And it reminds us that Commies are unspeakable bastards.
Anyone remember her?
Yup, that’s Nadia Comeneci. who achieved a perfect 10.0 in gymnastics at the 1976 Olympics. Of course, as a callow pre-adolescent girl with no figure to speak of, she wasn’t a perfect 10 — that improvement would come later.
So why are you mentioning her at all, Kim?
Because later this year, she will be turning 60. Here’s a more recent pic: 
You all have my permission to feel really old. (And I know, she’s probably gone blonde to disguise the grey. Bad choice, in my opinion, but I still would.)
Ladies and Gentlemen (and those about to have the operation):
Say hello to the new GTO Squalo, with its 4.0-liter quad-cam 12-cylinder engine:
And if you think it resembles a certain model of 1960s-era Ferrari, you may be permitted to do so.
Here’s the story, as well as more pictures.
Whereas Sabine Schmitz was taken from us at age 51, Jessica Walter — one of my favorite character actresses of all time — held out till 80.
Here we go:
In later years, she just aged like the finest wine:
And now [sigh] I’ll just have to take Malory Archer off Ye Olde Buckette Lyst:
R.I.P. Jessica. You were always one of the best, and one of my favorites.
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.