Portrait of Gioacchino Rossini
Technical Details
-
Title
Portrait of Gioacchino Rossini -
Author
Francesco Hayez -
Year
1870 -
Dimensions
cm 109 x 87 -
Inventory
812
Hayez’s long friendship with Rossini dated back to their youth when they studied and roistered together in Rome. On the composer’s death, Hayez used a photograph to produce this superb portrait which lacks the stiffness of posthumous likenesses but has all the freshness associated with portraits drawn from life. Ironically, Hayez depicted his friend with his waistcoat open to reveal his white shirt, thus taking liberties with the photograph in which Rossini actually has his glasses hanging from the waistcoat.
