Giovanni Boldini (1842–1931) was born in Ferrara on 31 December 1842, the son of Antonio Boldini, a painter of religious subjects, who gave him his first lessons. He studied in Ferrara and then at the Academy of Fine Arts in Florence, where he came into contact with the Macchiaioli, the Italian painters who worked in patches of light and colour.
He later left Italy for Paris, where he lived for most of his career. There he became one of the most fashionable portrait painters of the late nineteenth century, known for a dashing, swirling brushwork that still shows traces of his Florentine years. He received the Légion d’honneur and showed at the Venice Biennale in 1895, 1903, 1905 and 1912.
Boldini painted elegant society women, fellow artists and scenes of Parisian street life, always with great speed and brio. He died in Paris in 1931.