And the painting becomes a series of wonderful angles formed by torso, thighs, arms and in one elongated hand, an elegant blue handled wooden cane. Dressed in shades of white and black gray and moss green, his thin torso and narrow, well-barbed face turn left. But what do I know? Let’s forget that and concentrate on this portrait in which the Count is completely clothed and totally in control. He seems startled at first but then he seems to like it. In the Proust exhibition that just closed at the Carnavalet, there was a clip from a film adaptation of Proust's opus showing the Baron de Charlus being whipped at a male brothel. Oh, and a closeted homosexual and a dandy. Montesquiou, twenty years Proust’s senior, was an aristocrat, a poet, an intellectual and an art collector. One critic noted that “walking through the exhibition was as close as a visitor could get to traveling through the pages of À la recherche du temps perdu.” With portraits of the people who inspired some of the main characters of Proust’s novel, among them the Baron de Charlus and the Duchesse de Guermantes, aka Count Robert de Montesquiou and his cousin Élisabeth Greffulhe.īoldini’s portrait of Count Robert de Montesquiou, (Figure 1) was painted in 1897, a year after Proust’s juvenilia. Critics’ opinions vary.Īn exhibition that was held three years ago, in Ferrara, in Boldini’s hometown, suggests that Proust is always there, if you know where to look. Either the vacuous ‘pensées’ of a superficial 25 year old boy or harbingers of what would become one of the greatest books ever written. Les Plaisirs et les Jours was a collection of prose poems and novellas published by Proust in 1896. Boldini Les Plaisirs et les Jours (Pleasures and Days). Has Proust always been everywhere or will this constant referencing be over when the 150 anniversary of his birth and the 100 anniversary of his death finally come to an end at the end of this year? The reason I ask is because those of you who are not ‘Proust Heads’ may need a little help with the title of this exhibition. The exhibition I am going to tell you about today is not only some glorious paintings but a sprinkling of ethereal gowns and a soupçon of amazing accessories in which these women with the longest of legs and slenderest of waists, posed. Mostly gorgeous women dressed in fabulous gowns. Have you heard of Giovanni Boldini? The Italian portraitist who painted everybody who was anybody and anybody who wanted to be somebody.

And of course, Corsets ! Whew ! That’s quite a list. Dandies and the Demimonde, Boldini and the Belle Époque.

Giovanni Boldini by Maria Peitcheva