As my friend put it when he emailed me this article, this seems right up your alley. Dead on.
An apartment kept although never visited. An exquisite Boldini portrait and old Mickey Mouse toys found. All discovered after the owner’s death under a thick layer of dust. More from the Telegraph here.
The portrait discovered there has since been attributed to Giovanni Boldini and went for a nice 2.1M Euro at auction, spurred on by the discovery that the never-before seen piece had been painted of the artist’s muse, actress Marthe de Florian. Boldoni (1842–931) was an Italian genre and portrait painter who was known as the “Master of Swish,” because of his flowing style of painting. He painted many high society people.
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| Portrait of the dandy Robert de Montesquiou |
Traces of glamor come through even under dust an inch thick.
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Re your last line
“I’m ready for my closeup, Mr. DeMille”.
Also that woman in the protrait does kind of suggest Norma Desmond in her salad days…
Wow, what a intriguing story…..enjoyed the article in the Telegraph & then even went on to read other interesting articles there….thanks for a great, morning read…. wish I could have been one of those people who first entered that apartment….this sort of thing is right up my alley as well!