Portrait of Giuseppina Pontiggia Bernacchi

Giuseppina Pontiggia Bernacchi, a wealthy widow, on July 29, 1906 donated 200,000 lire to the Maggiore Hospital, reserving a life annuity. When she died a few months later, the Hospital took possession of the almost complete inheritance. The benefactor herself chooses for the portrait the painter Ernesto Fontana, who, although the painting begins when she is alive, is based as a model on two photographs.