Giovanni BOLDINI

Around the turn of the 20th century, and for the next few years, Giovanni Boldini began to produce a handful of striking watercolours of Gothic and Romanesque churches in France, including views of the interior of the cathedral of Saint-André at Bordeaux and the porch of the abbey at Moissac. The present sheet is one of a number of drawings and watercolours by Boldini of the 13th century cathedral of Notre-Dame at Amiens.

Two further watercolour views of the interior and stained glass of the cathedral of Amiens are in private collections, while a large black chalk drawing of the side aisle of the cathedral nave was exhibited at a gallery in Bologna in 1999. Boldini also drew a large watercolour of the porch of the 15th century church of Saint-Germain-l’Écossais at Amiens. Among other stylistically comparable watercolours is a large study of a stained glass window in the collection of the Museo Boldini in Ferrara and a similar work, signed and dated 1905, in a private collection.

The chalk study of horses on the verso of the present sheet appears to show the portico of a church, quite possiby also at Amiens, in the background.