Portrait of Sofia Gervasini

Sofia Gervasini in 1911 donated three Milanese houses that she owned to the Ospedale Maggiore, of a value of about 400,000 lire, asking for a modest annual income. Before she died, in 1931, she annulled the will in favor of the hospital, assigning heir to the Congregation of Charity (now ASP Golgi-Redaelli), disappointed that in all those years the Ca 'Granda had not provided on its own initiative to adjust the annuity and to commission the portrait. Although belatedly, Umberto Lilloni, founder of the "Chiaristi Milanese", which has a youthful photo of the benefactor during a vacation in Liguria, between Lavagna and Sestri Levante and entrusts it as a simple chromatic element in a luminous landscape, predominant compared to the figure. Criticized by the family and by the executor who in a letter defines it as "not decent for the deceased", the painting is retouched by the artist according to the indications given by the relatives; but this time, against the positive opinion of the Artistic Commission of the Hospital, the Hospital Council judges him "in contrast to the special needs to be met by the collection of portraits of benefactors, in which the modern school is most widely represented". The work still appears perhaps too naive and two-dimensional and Lilloni declares himself willing to perform a new portrait "according to his first manner" (more similar to the taste of "Novecento"). Even the second picture has no better luck, despite having tried to give greater importance to the figure of the benefactor, represented younger and with a sweeter face, and having replaced the verdant hills dotted with houses with a wide view of the gulf and of the beach, in a triumph of blue shades. Therefore, for the peace of relatives, a third portrait will be commissioned to Giulio Cisari. Another portrait of the benefactor, commissioned by the Congregation of Charity to Umberto Lilloni, is located in the ASP Golgi-Radaelli Quadreria.