Alessandro Duroni (1807-1870), "Portrait of Countess Giuseppina Durini Casati", post 1850, daguerreotype, half plate, stereoscopic, hand coloured, 100x190 mm, inv. I 132/b

Alessandro Duroni, optician and owner, from 1837, of a physics, optics and chemical instruments shop in Milan's Galleria De Cristoforis, was the first person to take daguerreotypes in Lombardy, for which he was lauded by the papers of the time. He undertook frequent work trips abroad and in 1848 opened a daguerreotype factory in Milan, with a studio for portraits in Corso Vittorio Emanuele II, formerly Corso Francesco.  Duroni's Studio went on to become one of the most famous portrait studios in the country, and as such was able to photograph the most important public figures of the period, including Giuseppe Garibaldi, Nino Bixio, Camillo Benso Count of Cavour, Carlo Cattaneo and King Vittorio Emanuele II. Duroni, who had received the title of photographer to His Majesty, King Vittorio Emanuele II, took a full length portrait of the sovereign, which earned him a medal at the Italian National Exposition of 1861. One of his most noteworthy works is the hand-coloured stereoscopic daguerreotype portraying Countess Giuseppina Durini Casati, mother of the painter, Alessandro Durini.