Bust of a woman with scattered hair 1876

Francesco Hayez created this intimate oil painting of a woman with loose hair sometime in the mid-nineteenth century. Hayez was a leading figure in Italian Romanticism, an art movement with revolutionary political undertones. Romanticism often emphasized emotion, individualism, and the heroic potential of the common person. Note how the woman's gaze is directed at the viewer, creating a feeling of intimate contact. Her loosened hair and partially exposed chest were unconventional at a time that academic art still prized historical and mythological subjects, painted in a highly polished style. But Hayez was a product of the art academy. To what degree does this painting challenge the social structures of its time? Or is it an example of academic institutions absorbing potentially radical ideas? By researching the painting's exhibition history, we might better understand how it was received.