La Promenade au bois

This large oil painting by Giovanni Boldini, dated 1909, shows the Cuban-born Rita de Alba de Acosta walking through the Bois de Boulogne, the Parisian wood, beside her second husband, the British captain Philip Lydig. The sitter posed for the painter several times between 1904 and 1911, and here she advances with a confident stride, in a scene that captures the worldly elegance of the period. The work was meant for the Salon of 1909, and its presence there caused an unexpected stir: Luisa Casati, who was sitting for Boldini at the same time in preparation for her Parisian debut, was upset by the attention given to her rival. Lydig, a collector and patron, was famous for her wardrobe, which included pieces by the Callot sisters and dozens of pairs of shoes, and the canvas reflects that passion for fashion. Its composition draws on eighteenth-century English portraiture, especially Thomas Gainsborough's The Morning Walk, and the result conveys the proud bearing of the sitter, whose figure seems to command the space around her.

Painter

Giovanni Boldini

Date

1909

Museum

Museo Boldini, Ferrara

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