Portrait of Sofia Greppi

Sofia Greppi (1864-1930), daughter of the owner of an established tailor's shop, educated at a boarding school, leads a discreet and withdrawn life, often doing charity in complete anonymity. Patroness for twenty years of the Società Zoofila Milanese (Zoophile Society of Milan), in her will she appoints Ospedale Maggiore a universal heir of around 650,000 lire, giving precise instructions regarding her grave and the maintenance of the funeral monument. She establishes legacies also for the two children, the Pio Albergo Trivulzio and other beneficial institutions. The commission of the portrait is entrusted to Giacomo Grosso, one of the most famous and appreciated Piedmontese painters of the beginning of the century, a well-known painter of still life, of sensual female nudes and portraitist of high society and eminent personalities. Sofia Greppi, whose portrait belongs to the later period of the artist's production, is represented in a sober and realistic composition, almost modest, far from the opulence and ostentatious characteristics of the works that most characterize it.