Autoritratto in un gruppo di amici

Francesco Hayez painted Autoritratto in un Gruppo di Amici (Self-Portrait with a Group of Friends) around 1824, an unusual group portrait in which Hayez includes himself among a gathering of Milanese intellectual and artistic figures who formed the social world of Brera Academy in the early Romantic period. The painting documents a specific cultural moment in Milanese intellectual life: the emergence of Romanticism as a cultural movement, the gathering of writers, artists, and thinkers in the coffee houses and academies of Austrian-occupied Milan who would eventually provide the cultural framework for the Risorgimento. Hayez's inclusion of himself among the group is both a social and professional statement.

Hayez renders the group with careful individual characterization and warm, naturalistic handling. The intimate composition and the relaxed poses create an image of intellectual camaraderie painted with the accomplished technique of his early maturity.