Collection: Federica Galli

(Soresina 1932 - Milan 2009)

Federica Galli was an extraordinary interpreter of the technique of etching, of which she is one of the most deserving Italian representatives, so much so that she earned the title of “incisore,” coined specifically for her by the art critic Giovanni Testori.
She trained in Milan by attending the Artistic High School and the Brera Academy and later traveled to the main Central European capitals, where she studied closely the works of Albrecht Dürer, Matthias Grünewald, Hans Holbein, and Rembrandt.
She is known as the “Lady of Trees” for the series of engravings she dedicated to the monumental shrubs of Italy starting in 1982. Among her favorite subjects, the trees she depicted are works of ambivalent value, both simple and complex, universal and intimate at the same time. Apparently of immediate and understandable meaning, Federica Galli's etchings have, in fact, a precise figurative intention: to represent an elm, a plane tree, a cedar, and over sixty plant species, combining art and botanical science in an excellent manner. Upon closer inspection, however, the eye gets lost like in a forest full of foliage, indeed it becomes enchanted among the minute details, between bark and leaves engraved on the copper plates with patience and meticulousness, which stand out in the almost photographic black and white of her etchings.
Other recurring themes in Federica Galli's works are urban glimpses steeped in solitude, rural landscapes, waterways, but also atmospheric situations like snow and fog and nighttime settings: challenging subjects to engrave, but which she always portrayed with a fresh perspective. “The Enchantment of the Gaze” is precisely the title of the last exhibition dedicated to the artist still alive in 2008, which perfectly defines her unmistakable style, full of poetry and sensitivity.
Her works are exhibited at the Civic Museum Ala Ponzone in Cremona, in the Bertarelli Collection at the Sforza Castle in Milan, in the Royal Villa of Monza, in the collection of the Ambrosiana Library, annexed to the homonymous Pinacoteca, in Milan, and at the National Museum of Women in Art in Washington.