FRANCESCO HAYEZ | REBECCA AT THE WELL

Gaetano Taccoli, Rome, 1831;

Private collection, Rome;

Anonymous sale, Milan, Sotheby's, 9 June 1998, lot 128;

French & Company, New York, 12 May 1999;

There acquired. 

G. Nicodemi, Francesco Hayez, Milan 1962, vol. I, p. 252;

C. Castellaneta, L'Opera completa di Hayez, Milan 1971, p. 95, cat. no. 145;

M.C. Gozzoli and F. Mazzocca, Hayez, exhibition catalogue, Milan 1983, p. 236, no. 113 (reproduces an image of the 1847 print);

F. Mazzocca, Francesco Hayez: catalogo ragionato, Milan 1994, p. 213;

F. Mazzocca, Hayez Privato: Arte e passioni nella Milano romantica, Turin 1997, p. 27, (the reproductive print reproduced);

Sotheby’s Art at Auction 1997-1998, Nineteenth Century European Paintings, London 1998, pp. 66-67, reproduced;

F. Mazzocca, Hayez: dal mito al bacio, exhibition catalogue, Venice 1998, p. 164, under cat. no. 49, reproduced;

Il Giornale dell’arte, no. 177, May 1999, p. X, Speciale Ottocento/I top lot alle aste internazionali, reproduced.

One of the leading exponents of Lombard Romanticism, Francesco Hayez painted this powerful portrayal of Rebecca at the Well in 1831 for the Roman nobleman and patriot, Gaetano Taccioli. It marks a turning point within the oeuvre of this important Italian ottocento artist, particularly in his shift towards the more neutral and chromatic tones that would come to characterize his palette for the rest of his career. Before its reappearance at auction in 1998, the painting was known only from an engraving printed in an album published in 1847,¹ accompanied by a text underscoring its political and nationalistic sentiment, or sentimenti liberali.  This painting remains today an enduring image of an historically important moment, having arisen within a wider cultural movement in support of Italian unification, also known as the Risorgimento, which convulsed the Italian peninsula for most of the nineteenth century and resulted in the birth of a unified nation in 1861.  

Hayez received his earliest artistic training in Venice and Rome, though he spent much of his long and successful career in Milan. His development as an artist evolved parallel to Italy’s emergence as an independent state, and he counted Italian nationalists among his most esteemed patrons. It is of no surprise that political undertones were often woven into his works, many of which showed contemporary individuals in the guise of historical or biblical figures. 

In the present example, a beautiful and sensual Milanese beauty is shown as the Old Testament figure of Rebecca (Genesis 24), shown at the well where she would be chosen as the wife of Isaac. Her smooth and neoclassical figure, which is set against an exotic and arid landscape, is reminiscent of the style of Ingres and Canova. With her left arm resting on an amphora and her right set across her bare chest, she looks towards the audience with an intense and moving gaze. Her emblematic quality set a precedent for other works by Hayez, including Malinconia (1842),² Tamar di Giuda (1847),³ and Meditazione (1851),⁴ the former two of which also were commissioned by Taccioli and along with the present work formed a cohesive set of the half-length female figures that became hallmarks of Hayez’s career.  

Hayez must have considered Rebecca at the well as an important composition, as he returned to it again in 1848.⁵ This later version, today in the Accademia di Brera in Milan, compares in dimensions and overall impression, though the landscape is slightly different as is the pose and costume of Rebecca. Both works, however, preserve the arresting and captivating quality of Rebecca's glance.

1. Gozzoli and Mazzocca 1983, p. 236. 

2. Mazzocca 1998, pp. 156-157, cat. no. 45, reproduced.

3. Mazzocca 1998, pp. 162-163, cat. no. 48, reproduced.  

4. Mazzocca 1998, pp. 168-169, cat. no. 51, reproduced. 

5. Mazzocca 1998, pp. 164-165, cat. no. 49, reproduced.