Portrait of Giacinta Bonavia

Giacinta Bonavia (1865-1941) belongs to a wealthy family: her father Luigi is an industrialist among the founders of the "Vetrerie Milanesi"; her mother, Angelina Isola, is also from an affluent family, the daughter of a wealthy building contractor for large public works; his brother Carlo, an architect, works with Camillo Boito (who also designed the rest home for "Giuseppe Verdi" musicians) in important projects abroad; Giacinta receives an excellent education, even musical (she is a good pianist), travels a lot, looks after charity, is a Lady of the Red Cross and lives, luckily for her, an existence that is always free from economic problems. In his will she devotes all her assets to charitable and welfare institutions: a conspicuous legacy of 1,000,000 lire in “Vetrerie Milanesi” shares is in favor of the Ospedale Maggiore, with the aim of erecting a new pavilion to be registered to his parents. Not forgetting the ENPA (National Animal Protection Agency) and an animalist magazine "The zoophilic idea". She donates 20 valuable paintings of her own tothe Castello Sforzesco Museum and the most precious volumes of her library at the Ambrosiana. The commission of the portrait is entrusted, at the suggestion of a relative, to Beppe Ingegnoli; the work is accepted after the suggestion by the Artistic Commission of various modifications on environment details defined too meticulously and by excessively lively colors (the frame of the fireplace, the carpet, the upholstery). In the artist's studio in Milan two oil sketches of the painting were preserved.