Portrait of Countess Antonietta Negroni Prati Morosini

This canvas, a masterpiece of Hayez' later portraiture, depicts Countess Antonietta Negroni Prati Morosini, who the artist had portrayed as a child 14 years earlier, in a painting that is today exhibited in the same room at the Galleria d'Arte Moderna. The eldest daughter of Giuseppina Negroni Prati Morosini, a friend of Hayez, Antonietta had learned the basics of painting from the artist, alongside her younger sister Luigia. The girl is portrayed in a neat, domestic setting, dominated by a large chair and the warm hues of its characteristic golden wood and yellow silk. Antonietta is wearing a richly detailed light-blue dress and gently caresses the rose resting in front of her; the flower serves as an allusion to the inescapable passing of time. As attested in the painter's correspondences, this portrait took a remarkable effort, because of the artist's age, and because of the numerous sessions that were required to convey every detail to the highest standard. Two studies for the portrait are kept at the Brera Academy: one for the entire figure and another for the setting of the armchair.