Portrait of Vittorio Balzaretti

The engineer Vittorio Balzaretti (1861-1926), graduated from the Polytechnic of Turin. For many years he was a municipal councilor in Milan. He married Olimpia Bordoni, daughter of the owner of the "Vetrerie Milanesi"; he later settled in Livorno where he directed the "Vetreria Italiana Balzaretti Modigliani & Co.", later founding the "Vetreria Pisana". In his will he does not forget his Milan and allocates 100,000 lire to the Ospedale Maggiore. The portrait commission is entrusted to Leonardo Dudreville, shortly after his participation in the Permanent Exhibition of "Novecento italiano" of 1926, and is the first of the six portraits made by the artist for the hospital picture gallery. This choice demonstrates how the Artistic Commission of the Hospital now turned its interests to painters who went beyond the usual portraiture tradition and expressed requests for renewal. Dudreville makes an analytical portrait, which captures details of the environment and clothing, managing to give a good physiognomic and psychological rendering of the character.