Portrait of Davide Lanfranconi

Davide Quinto Lanfranconi (1877-1940), fifth (as his middle name also states) of eight brothers, began working as a plasterer, the family profession. But he aspires to study, graduates from evening schools, learns shorthand and some languages, finds first place as a salesman, then works as correspondent in the Sarti Cooperative and finally as a salesman for the Cucirini yarn company, a profession that leads him to travel the world . It comes to light during the First World War, from which it returns with the Cross of Merit of War but also with the lungs ruined for the inhaled toxic gases, for which it passes the last twenty years of its existence from a bronchial affection to a 'else. He dies of pneumonia. In his will he appoints a niece who, taking responsibility for a desire expressed verbally by his uncle, allocates 50,000 lire to the Ospedale Maggiore for the construction of the New Niguarda Hospital. The commission of the portrait is entrusted, on the recommendation of the same heir, to Giuseppe Amisani, who concludes with this work his long and happy collaboration with the Quadreria Ospedaliera. The painter repeats also for this half-length portrait the outdoor setting, already happily experimented in these post-mortem portraits, but penetrates deeply into the character of the character, painting his face with great realism and expressiveness and making him stand out not only compared to the background but also with respect to the figure, which is assimilated in the lake landscape, painted with broken brushstrokes and a chromatic range clear and dull.