Foresiana Picture Gallery in Portoferraio

The Foresiana Picture Gallery was donated in 1914 along with the books by Mario Foresi, an intellectual from Elba deeply interested in the flourishing cultural life of that period. It opened to the public in 1924. It contains a vast collection of pieces of art, pictures and paintings, some of which were done by T. Signorini, F. Morandini, P. Nomellini, A. Ciseri and L. Lloyd.

The collection is on the second floor of the De Laugier Barracks, and is divided into twelve groups according to their themes: Portraits of the Foresi family at Home, Significant People and Places of Elba, some Nineteenth Century Paintings, copies of Antiques, Holy Paintings, Views of the Town, Paintings of Antique Mythology and History, various Examples from the Seventeenth and Eighteenth Centuries, Antique Panoramas and Antique Style Panoramas, the Antiques cabinet of the Collector, the Drawings and Pictures room, and the Art collections of the Commune of Portoferraio.

The section dedicated to the people and places of Elba is particularly interesting, because it gives you a clear idea of how authors over the different centuries saw the island and its inhabitants.