The exhibition “Cesare Tallone. Portraits of Society”, set up in the rooms of the Nineteenth Century Museum at the Tadini Academy Gallery in Lovere (Bg) from Saturday 1 July to Sunday 1 October 2023, brings together an important nucleus of works by the painter Cesare Tallone (Savona, 1853- Milan, 1919), director of the Accademia Carrara in Bergamo from 1885 to 1899 as well as an important innovator and internationally renowned portraitist.

Curated by the director of the Galleria dell'Accademia Tadini Marco Albertario and by the art historians Silvia Capponi and Elena Lissoni, the exhibition, which enjoys the patronage of the Municipality of Lovere and the Community of the Bergamo lakes, is organized in collaboration with the Accademia Carrara, Fondazione Brescia Musei, the University of Brescia and the Lombard 19th century network and with the support of companies such as Montello Spa, the Credito Bergamasco Foundation, the Polli Stoppani Foundation, Spazio Effe and Antica Fratta.

The exhibition offers over forty paintings by the painter combined with photographs, sculptures and architectural projects for a total of about 80 works, many of which unpublished, from public collections (Accademia Carrara, Fondazione Brescia Musei, Galleria Ricci Oddi in Piacenza) and from private collections, with the aim of restoring Tallone's journey during his Bergamo period, with a focus on the activity carried out in Lovere, which has never been investigated so far. The portraits executed by the artist are placed in relationship with other forms of representation, in particular with photography and architectural drawing, and in many cases they assume the value of important testimonies of family values and social relationships that animated society between Bergamo and Lovere in the last quarter of the 19th century.

The exhibition opens by recalling the arrival in Bergamo of Cesare Tallone in 1885 following his appointment as professor of the School of Painting at the Carrara Academy. The undisputed artistic ability and the prestige of the institutional role held allow Tallone to fit naturally into the Bergamo art scene, as documented by the works on loan from the Accademia Carrara Foundation and the Brescia Musei Foundation.