Portrait of Gian Giacomo Poldi Pezzoli

The portrait, which greets visitors at the entrance to the house-museum, was commissioned by Gian Giacomo’s mother, Rosina Trivulzio. The young Poldi Pezzoli, in this official image, is depicted in an interior devoid of spatial connotations, in which the dark background wall is animated only by a reflection of light. Depicted seated three-quarter-length, with his legs crossed, in an elegant and casual pose, he looks intensely toward the viewer, with whom he establishes an intimate and direct relationship. In the past, the painting had been dated to around 1846-1848, a dating suggested by the fashions of the dress, which would have been out of fashion by 1850. Today, however, it is preferred to date the work to 1851, the year it was exhibited at the Brera Academy. Evidently, the future founder of the Museum, having come of age and taken possession of the family fortune, had chosen to appear in a serious and elegant black suit, suitable for a representative portrait. In the central decades of the nineteenth century Francesco Hayez was the portraitist most appreciated by the Milanese upper middle class and aristocracy, who loved his rigorous and internalized painting, attentive to the psychological investigation of the characters.