This painting,[1] which represents an important enrichment of Hayez’s catalogue, is to be identified with a different version, most likely painted shortly afterwards that same year, of an Interior of a Harem, presented in 1840 at the annual Brera Academy exhibition in Milan.[2] The work was the property of a certain Gaetano Taccioli, one of the most loyal collectors of the painter, of whom he owned some real masterpieces.[3] The same subject, apparently rather popular in those years, was then repeated at least four more times in 1842, 1866, and 1867.

 This version is to be identified with the picture documented in the autograph lists of Hayez’s works that he himself left us, as intended for one of his Austrian patrons, Countess Nákó of Vienna. In this source, published by Giulio Carotti in the Appendixto the artist’s published memoirs, we can read: “1840. A harem, of Mr. Enrico Taccioli, from Milan – The same subject as that of the Countess Nákó of Vienna”.[4]

 Contrary to what I had assumed in Hayez’s catalogue raisonné, where the painting was mentioned among the documented works without actually having been found, this is not a “replica of the same size but with variations in the figures”,[5] but a new, larger version which allowed the artist to use a completely new layout for the scene, inserting a greater number of characters and subdividing it into a series of episodes which are what gives the painting its charm.

 The main group is formed by the sultan who, surrounded by his favourites, is complacently appraising the latest purchase of the harem: a magnificent Western woman depicted flaunting her nudity, albeit with some reticence. She was Hayez’s favourite model in those years, a main figure of such masterpieces as the Odalisca of 1838/9 and the Malinconia of 1840 – 1841 (both now at the Pinacoteca di Brera).[6] Further away, two other odalisques are lying on some steps, one occupied in playing an instrument, the other intent on watching what is happening in the centre of the room. Meanwhile, in the background on the left, the composition culminates in an extraordinary scene, rendered by the painter with a great scenic effect; between a sumptuous curtain and a wooden screen typical of harems, a gently blurred landscape stretching to the horizon. This atmospheric panoramic vista corresponds to a different solution on the other side of the painting with the magnificent fold of an emerald green curtain that frames a dark background to lend an aura of mystery to the scene.

 It is therefore a work of great commitment created in a magical phase of Hayez’s career, when the artist was creating a series of masterpieces, while still in the prime of his physical and creative vigour. The oriental subject, at that time fashionable throughout Europe, must have been particularly congenial to him, since it allowed him to try his hand at two of his favourite expressive areas, namely, the representation of female beauty, here modulated in different poses and physiognomies, and the rendering of costumes. In this case, the precious fabrics of the oriental clothes offered him the opportunity to experiment with a quite extraordinary range of colours, from the brightest ones, as in the splendid sequence of reds concentrated in the foreground and in the main group, to the most evanescent subtle shades among the infinite hues of blue and pearl that dominate the background.

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