The Lascaraky sisters, 1869

Oil on panel, 14 x 22.5 cm
Museo Giovanni Boldini, inv. 1353

In 1864 the young Giovanni Boldini left Ferrara for Florence. He approached the circle of the Macchiaioli, artists who asserted the reasons for a nonconformist art faithful to the “true,” and undertook a fruitful activity as a portrait painter. His early production is characterized by small-format works marked by an energetic brushstroke and an informal approach. Boldini, in fact, portrayed his subjects in casual and natural attitudes and placed them in places familiar to them, anchoring the composition to a concrete reality and thus revealing the personalities of the effigies. The Lascaraky sisters is a small masterpiece from 1869 and presents us with a glimpse of contemporary bourgeois reality. The three maidens on the sofa, belonging to a Russian family then living in Florence, are intent on sewing. Boldini succeeds in perfectly restoring the character of the three girls and the dynamics of their affections through the description of their attitudes. The gesture of the young woman in the center, who rests her feet on the table, emphasizes the intimacy of the scene, while the older sister’s gaze seeks the artist’s and reveals the bond that united them at the time. The small table has all the flavor of the tale of a happy moment that the painter wanted to immortalize and keep with him always.