Portrait of the composer Gaetano Donizetti (1797-1848)

Gaetano Donizetti was from Bergamo and the greatest Italian opera composer of the first
half of the nineteenth century, along with Vincenzo Bellini. Precursor to the Verdi style, he was by far the most prolific composer, with 73 operas!
In this large painting of him, by Giuseppe Rillosi, Donizetti is depicted in the last months of his life, now ill, as a guest of the Scotti family from whom the painting was acquired for the Museum in 1913.