Portrait of Count Giuseppe de Reali

Portrait of Count Joseph de Reali (1877-1937), oil on canvas. Last descendant of a Venetian family of landowners, prominent political and economic figure of Venice, Giuseppe de Reali was intrigued by archaeology and art, but his real passion was hunting big game, so much so that he undertook, between 1898 and 1929, twelve expeditions mainly in northern and equatorial Africa. With the remains of the specimens shot dead during safaris, he transformed part of his family home into a true permanent exhibition of African animals and objects. At his death, the collection, mainly composed of large animals and ethnographic material, as well as a suggestive photographic documentation, was donated by the heirs to the Municipality of Venice.