In 1921, from Ianni Psacaropulo and Margherita Cambiagio, was born the youngest of four children — Alice Psacaropulo. From an early age, Alice showed a natural gift and deep passion for drawing, perhaps influenced by the great Carlo Sbisà. At seventeen, she became his model for two of his masterpieces — The Herbalist and The Solfeggio Lesson — of which two sketches survive here, both portraying the young Alice herself. From the same period likely dates the sculpted portrait of her face, carved by her brother Alessandro in the 1930s.
Her earliest dated works — from 1936 — are a group of school caricatures, among which stands out that of the writer Giani Stuparich, her teacher at the Dante Alighieri High School. Yet Trieste was too small for her ambitions. The city had no Academy of Fine Arts, and it was common for young Triestine artists to seek their training elsewhere — some went to Vienna, others to Venice or Rome. Freshly graduated, Alice chose Turin — drawn there by an artist whose work had enchanted her: Felice Casorati. Two of his drawings dedicated to her are still preserved. In Turin she formed lasting friendships with the philosopher Albino Galvano and the painter Paola Levi-Montalcini, among others from that extraordinary circle of artists. But above all, she learned from Casorati the art and science of pictorial composition — and the suspended, dreamlike stillness of his magic realism. They were unforgettable years.
Then came the war. In 1941, the villa was requisitioned by the Fascist government, as it was co-owned by a Greek citizen — her father Ianni Psacaropulo — who was sent into internal exile in Pistoia. Conditions worsened after September 8, 1943, when Trieste and the Adriatisches Küstenland fell under German control. Trieste became the only Italian city to host a concentration camp — the Risiera di San Sabba, today a memorial to remembrance. Alice was forced to return. In 1944 she earned her degree in Literature with a thesis in Archaeology on Roman Trieste, all while continuing to exhibit her work in both solo and group shows. In 1946 — the same year as her grand Martyrdom of Saint Justus displayed in the corridor — she exhibited at the Galleria dello Scorpione alongside two giants of Italian art: Carlo Carrà and Filippo De Pisis, another celebrated painter represented in this collection. Her charcoal drawing of a man resting against a wall was bought directly from one of the Venetian gondoliers who roamed the canals with bundles of sketches that De Pisis, ever generous, exchanged for a short ride.
Among the other drawings in this room, two portraits deserve mention: one of Alice, drawn by one of the few Triestine artists able to live solely from his art — Bruno Chersicla — and the enigmatic Visage by Leonor Fini. Together, these works form a collection layered over time — a constellation of stories. Alongside the commissions of Alice’s ancestors and her own creations, they include this third circle of works by artists she met and cherished throughout her life.
