Female portrait in profile

This spirited sketch reveals all the exuberance of Boldini’s art. An extremely prolific draftsman, the artist filled numerous sketchbooks with his dashing drawings. But he also drew on random pieces of paper, such as in the case of this portrait drawn on a page of graph paper, probably taken from a notebook. Another drawing sketched on similar paper is in the Los Angeles County Museum of Art (inv. M.64.14.7). After moving to Paris in 1872, Boldini became one of the most sought-after portraitists of the time. This drawing was in the artist’s studio at the time of his death, when his wife, Emilia Boldini Cardona, catalogued it and added the note on the verso.