The exhibition offers an in-depth exploration of portrait painting at the end of the 19th and beginning of the 20th century. It presents the original solutions of the artists from two border regions, the Italian Vigezzo Valley and the Ticino region, who move between the Italian tradition and new French influences. The approximately 70 selected works come from the Poscio Collection in Domodossola, from the Museo Civico Villa dei Cedri and from other public and private collections in Italy and Ticino.
At the beginning of the exhibition tour, the unique development of portrait painting in Vigezzo Valley will be shown: This tradition has developed over centuries (the first school workshops date back to 1500) with very specific characteristics. With the Rossetti-Valentini school, it culminated in 1882 with the creation of its own academy.Carlo Fornara, Gian Maria Rastellini, Giovanni Battista Ciolina and Lorenzo Peretti Jr. were introduced to various subjects under the direction of Carlo Giuseppe Cavalli, who taught drawing, and Enrico Cavalli, who was in charge of painting lessons: Drawing from models and nature, as well as portrait, landscape and open-air painting.The next part of the exhibition is dedicated to the portraits and self-portraits of Carlo Fornara, followed by a focus on various Ticino artists: Edoardo Berta, Adolfo Feragutti Visconti and Luigi Rossi.
The last part of the tour also offers a deeper insight into the history of the portrait. It is accompanied by a confrontation with some of the most important representatives of this genre in Italy, such as Cesare Tallone and Giuseppe Pellizza da Volpedo - with a self-portrait painted by him during his years of study at the Carrara Academy with his teacher Tallone - or Gaetano Previati
