From: The British Museum
Born in Ferrara, the son of the painter Antonio Boldini (1792-1872), from whom he received his first artistic training, Giovanni Boldini studied at the Civico Ateneo di Palazzo dei Diamanti in his native city, where he had established a reputation as an accomplished portrait painter by the time he was 18.
In 1862 he went to Florence, where he met artists in the Macchiaioli circle at the Caffé Michelangiolo, while attending the Scuola del Nudo at the Accademia di Belle Arti.
Michele Gordigiani (1830-1909), the leading portrait painter in Tuscany, passed on some of his commissions to Boldini.
Boldini saw and admired the paintings of Courbet and Manet at the Exposition Universelle in 1867 on a visit to Paris, where he met Degas, who became a lifelong friend.