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''Self-Portrait in a Group of Friends'' is an 1824 or 1827 oil-on-canvas painting by the Italian artist Francesco Hayez, now in the Museo Poldi Pezzoli in Milan. The other people in the painting have been identified as (starting from the left): the painters
''Self-Portrait in a Group of Friends'' is an 1824 or 1827 oil-on-canvas painting by the Italian artist Francesco Hayez, now in the Museo Poldi Pezzoli in Milan. The other people in the painting have been identified as (starting from the left): the painters Giovanni Migliara
Giovanni Migliara (October 15, 1785 in Alessandria – April 18, 1837 in Milan), was a nobleman and Italian painter active at the beginning of the 19th century, painting vedute and history paintings.
Biography
Born to artisan parents of limit ...
, Pelagio Palagi, and Giuseppe Molteni
Giuseppe Molteni (Affori, Milan, 1800 – Milan, 1867) was an Italian painter.
Biography
Forced to abandon his studies at the Brera Academy for financial reasons, Molteni took up the restoration of ancient paintings as a pupil of Giuseppe Guizz ...
, and the scholar Tommaso Grossi
Tommaso Grossi (20 January 179110 December 1853) was an Italian poet and novelist.
Biography
Grossi was born in Bellano, on Lake Como, and graduated in law at University of Pavia in 1810. He then went to Milan to exercise his profession but the ...
.
History
The work is mentioned in ''Prospetto delle incisioni, quadri e oggetti d'arte a un prezzo d'acquisto'' (1853) as a "picture by Hayez in oils representing five portraits". It was first exhibited to the public in 1883 as part of a monographic show of the artist's work, but then remained in a private collection until 1996, when it was left to its present owner on the death of Riccardo Lampugnani, who had obtained it from his grandfather Giuseppe Gargantini.Fernando Mazzocca, 'Autoritratto in un gruppo di amici', in ''Francesco Hayez'', Silvana, 2015, p. 33. Peculiar is Hayez's choice to portray himself in a self-portrait that differs significantly from the usual portraiture of the nineteenth century. It is in fact a "portrait of friendship", in which the painter is surrounded by four associates and companions. Grossi, Molteni, Magliara and Pelagi were all exponents of the romantic style; their identity has been known since 1983 thanks to the analysis of Fernando Mazzocca, a scholar of Hayez. In the lower left corner, the painting bears a "1827" written in pen, although this has traditionally not been recognized as an autograph, and the debate on the dating of the painting is still open. The painting's composition, close viewpoint, and the artist's three-quarter pose facing the observer show the influence of the '' Self-Portrait in a Circle of Friends from Mantua'' executed by Peter Paul Rubens in 1602–1604. From a technical point of view, the ''Self-Portrait in a Group of Friends'' is characterized by the contrast between the faces of the portrayed, meticulously defined (on Hayez's face you can even glimpse the hair behind the shaved mustache), and the "unfinished" treatment of the clothes and bodies of Hayez's companions.References