The Misses Muriel and Consuelo Vanderbilt

Painted in 1913, this double portrait of Muriel and Consuelo Vanderbilt — two of the celebrated Vanderbilt daughters — represents the culmination of Boldini's long association with the American dynasty. By the second decade of the twentieth century the Vanderbilt name was synonymous with Gilded Age wealth, and Boldini had become their preferred portrait interpreter in Europe. A double portrait posed particular compositional challenges: two sitters had to be harmonized in posture, color, and emotional register without one overwhelming the other. Boldini responded with his characteristic restless energy, using animated poses and his swooping brushwork to unite the sisters in a single vibrant composition. The work participates in the long tradition of aristocratic double portraiture — from Van Dyck through Gainsborough — but translates those conventions into the language of pre-war modernist brushwork. Now at the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco, it stands as a record of the final years of European Belle Époque social life before the First World War transformed the world both painter and sitters inhabited.

Oil on canvas employing Boldini's mature technique of tightly worked faces set against freely handled costumes and background. The two figures are linked through color harmony and the gentle counterpoint of their poses. Boldini used a dark ground to give luminosity to the pale fabrics and skin tones.