Portrait of Mme Lina Cavalieri (section)

This striking woman appears frozen for just a second, her head turned as if someone across the room has called her name. She is Lina Cavalieri, the Italian opera star whose face graced postcards and posters across Europe. Boldini painted her in 1901 wearing a rich blue gown, ropes of pearls looping down her front, and a bold hat crowned with feathers and ribbon. The way he handled the paint is worth noticing, with the fur wrap on her arm and her billowing sleeve rendered in fast, sweeping strokes that seem to still be moving.

Born in Italy but famous in Paris, Boldini became the favorite portrait painter of the wealthy and fashionable around 1900. Admirers called him the "Master of Swish" for the swirling, breezy way he treated silk, satin, and fur. He had little interest in stiff, formal poses, preferring to show his sitters mid-gesture, as if you had walked in on them by accident. That choice gives Cavalieri a natural spark here, making her feel less like someone posing for a picture and more like a woman simply crossing the room on her way to somewhere important.