The White Pastel. Portrait of Emiliana Concha de Ossa

Three sisters from a wealthy Chilean family, the Concha de Ossa, came to Boldini's Paris studio in 1888, and he chose to work up the youngest, Emiliana, at full length and life size. He did it in pastel, a powdery medium normally reserved for small heads, on a sheet 225 centimetres tall. The following year Paris filled with visitors for the Exposition Universelle, the fair built around the new Eiffel Tower, and the portrait was shown there and took a gold medal. A second version went back across the Atlantic with the family. This one never left the studio. After Boldini's death his widow, Emilia Cardona, gave it to Mussolini, who assigned it to the Brera. It hangs now in Room 40 of Palazzo Citterio, the second Brera building, which opened to the public in December 2024.