Work accompanied by authentication and card by Prof. Fernando Mazzocca drawn up on 8 April 2025

The painting is a significant example of the portraiture of Giuseppe Molteni, one of the great protagonists together with his friend Francesco Hayez of Romanticism in Milan. In the work we find, at a compositional and stylistic level, as in the pictorial material, the distinctive traits of this versatile painter much loved by collectors of his time and revalued in recent years. As regards the cut of the figure, projected on the dark background, and the pose, with the hand at chest height hidden by the jacket, a very precise reference to the Portrait of a Man, of almost the same dimensions, preserved at the Brera Academy in Milan. In both paintings, Molteni concentrated on the physiognomic rendering of the character depicted, focusing the light on the face and on the white of the shirt collar and the elegantly knotted jabot. Moreover, the two men are wearing very similar clothing which also confirms the hypothesis of a dating towards the middle of the century.
Note the painter's mastery in rendering with a rapid style and a painting of great chromatic and luminous evidence every detail: from the vaporous hair to the lively gaze that captures the viewer, from the well-defined eyebrows to the half-open mouth as if the portrayed were about to speak to us. Note also the confidence in modulating the different tones of white and black of the dress, where the refined detail of the lighter buttons stands out.

Milan, 8 April 2025
Prof. Fernando Mazzocca