Portrait of Edgardo Balmelli

Edgardo Balmelli (1883-1934), a native of Constantinople (Istanbul), lives and works for a long time in Milan, a city he loves and in which he plans to return to settle. But death catches him, right in a hotel in Milan, at the age of 51. His father, who worked in Turkey in a French company for large hydraulic and railway works (the Constantinople - Damascus railway) assures him an excellent education. In Italy, Edgardo works first as an employee in various companies, then launches into the private entrepreneurship sector, in very different branches (he is also the owner of the Luxor hotel in Rome), not least also the financial sector and stock market investments. In a testament three years preceeding his death, he allocates the beautiful Lugano villa as a shelter for the elderly and needy children and all its patrimony, of over two million lire, to charity: 200,000 compete at the Ospedale Maggiore. The Hospital Council entrusts the commissioning of the portrait to Antonio Moretti the same year of the benefactor death. Only when the work is completed it can be seen that the patrimony is considerably reduced due to economic hardships of various kinds. For about fifteen years there was any correspondence between lawyers and when, in 1950, the Hospital was sure of not inheriting anything, he decided not to expose the portrait, which represents the benefactor in the heart of the city center, in the churchyard of Piazza del Duomo , in front of the Galleria Vittorio Emanuele. In the painting, the environment that expands on the background is prominent: despite the strong colors it exudes a feeling of coldness and immobility, which perhaps a little depends on the main activity of Moretti lithographer before being a painter (and which also works for the istituto dei Ciechi -Institute of the Blind- in Milan Quadreria).