Drypoint, 1897. 202x304 mm; 8x11 7/8 inches, full margins. Coat-of-arms watermark. A superb, richly-inked impression, with the burr printing dark and velvety.
Boldini (1842-1931) was dubbed 'The King of Swish' for his colorful, flowing and elegant society portraits of the most fashionable and beautiful women of the Belle Epoque. He and Whistler were friends from the 1870s onward; Boldini's insightful oil portrait of Whistler, one of the most famous images of Whistler, is now in the Brooklyn Museum. His etched work, though there is little, is similar in style to fellow society portraitist Paul César Helleu, as seen in this intimate study of Whistler asleep.
Both Whistler and Boldini made oil portraits of Count Robert de Montesquiou, one of the most flamboyant and arrogant Parisian dandies of the time. Whistler also based a tour-de-force lithograph (lot 137) on his portrait of Montesquiou. Prandi 24.
