Portrait of Alessandro Manzoni

portrait

Hayez, a Venetian, was influenced by the Roman milieu around Canova; he was famous as a painter of historical subjects. His best works are his portraits, in which drawing and colour are skillfully used for penetrating interpretations of his subjects. Fifteen sittings were required for this portrait of the author of the romantic novel I Promessi Sposi: three for the sketch, ten for the execution and two for retouching.

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About the Artist

Francesco Hayez

1791 – 1882

Italian painter, active mainly in Milan. Hayez was the most important figure in the transition from Neoclassicism to Romanticism in Italian painting, but his Romantic leanings come out mainly in subject-matter rather than in technique, the clear outlines he favoured revealing his training in Rome in the circle of Canova and Ingres. He painted religious, historical, and mythological works in a vein owing something to Delacroix and Delaroche, and portraits that are sometimes thought worthy of comparison with those of Ingres. Many of the most eminent Italians of the day sat for him. For many years he taught at the Brera in Milan (he became Director in 1860) and he exercised great influence on his pupils. The Brera has an outstanding collection of his work.

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