Giovanni Boldini e la partecipazione degli artisti francesi alla prima Biennale di Venezia

Abstract

By means of several documents, mostly preserved in the Archives of the Biennale (ASAC), the essay Giovanni Boldini and the French artists’ participation in the first Venice Biennale focus on the role played by the Italian artist Giovanni Boldini, born in Ferrara but resident in Paris for over twenty years, in the selection of the artists for the French section of that exhibition. A selection that, notwithstanding the intentions and efforts of the promoters, disappointed both public and art critics, since many relevant French artists, among which Monet and Rodin, didn’t accept the invitation or sent to Venice works of minor quality, so that a reviewer of the time could write that the French section was “the poorest one”.