Flowers at the Window of the Harem

Flowers at the Window of the Harem, painted in 1881 and held by the Pinacoteca di Brera in Milan, belongs to the Orientalist current in Italian Romantic painting that Hayez adopted late in his career. By 1881, Hayez was in his late eighties — an extraordinarily long active career that had begun in the Neoclassical period — and still producing work that reflected shifting fashions. Orientalism, sparked by French painters' North African travels and by the European fascination with the Ottoman world, had become a mainstream genre by mid-century, and harem scenes with their connotations of exotic femininity, luxury, and sensory pleasure attracted collectors across Europe. Hayez's version, set in a domestic interior with women and flowers at a decorated window, belongs to the respectable, aestheticized end of Orientalist fantasy rather than its more overtly erotic strand. The Brera's possession of this late work acknowledges Hayez's sustained position as the leading figure of Milanese painting throughout the Risorgimento era.

The harem interior allowed Hayez to deploy his considerable skill with fabric, jewelry, and decorative surface alongside the luminous skin tones that characterized his female figure painting. The contrast between interior shadow and the light entering through the window organizes the composition. Flower arrangements add chromatic richness and symbolic connotation — beauty, transience — to the Orientalist fantasy.