Pinacoteca Foresiana

The Pinacoteca Foresiana is Portoferraio's civic art collection, formed around the Foresi family's gift. Portraits, landscapes, drawings and copies after earlier masters record the interests of several generations of collectors.

Why it matters

The collection preserves an aspect of nineteenth-century Tuscan artistic culture alongside views of Elba. Family likenesses and works by artists associated with the Macchiaioli connect private collecting with the island's later civic museum.

What to notice

Antonio Ciseri portrayed Alessandro Foresi, and David Sani painted Mario Foresi. Telemaco Signorini's portrait of Mago Chio adds another distinctive presence. Copies after Botticelli, Raphael and Correggio sit within a collection also containing landscapes and coastal views. Works by Plinio Nomellini and Llewelyn Lloyd broaden its artistic range.

Context and history

Mario Foresi donated the collection in 1914, drawing on works assembled by his father Raffaello and uncle Alessandro. The gallery opened in the town hall in 1924. After wartime displacement, paintings were kept at the Napoleonic residences before the collection moved to the former Caserma De Laugier in 1991. These changes of setting form part of its history as a public collection.