Francisco Hayez Artwork valuations, appraisals and auction estimates

Francesco Hayez was born on 10 February 1791 in Venice and was one of the most important interpreters of Romanticism in Italy. His youth was marked by serious economic difficulties in the family, which is why he was entrusted to the care of his maternal uncles from an early age. Read the full biography

Francesco Hayez was born on 10 February 1791 in Venice and was one of the most important interpreters of Romanticism in Italy. His youth was marked by serious economic difficulties in the family, which is why he was entrusted to the care of his maternal uncles from an early age. It was his uncle who recognized his nephew's artistic talents and directed him towards the most important art schools. He attended nude lessons at the Academy of Fine Arts in Venice and in 1809 won a scholarship to Rome. Thanks to letters of introduction from his teachers, they recommended him to Antonio Canova.
Thanks to Canova, Hayez had free access to the great Roman collections, studying and drawing Greco-Roman statuary and the works of Canova himself in the Capitoline Museums and the Chiaramonti Museum in the Vatican. Subsequently, he moved to Milan where he met Alessandro Manzoni and other romantics, opening a new scenario also as a painter.
In 1822 he was called to teach at the Brera Academy of Fine Arts, where he remained until 1879. Hayez died in Milan in 1882 at the age of 91.