Portrait of Matilde Juva Branca

Portrait of Matilde Juva Branca is an 1851 oil-on-canvas painting by the Italian artist Francesco Hayez, now in the Galleria d'Arte Moderna in Milan, to which it was given in 1893 by Carlo Weber.

An opera singer, she shared her musical talents with her sisters, Luigia (a mezzo-soprano), Emilia (a harpist), and Cirilla (a pianist).

She was also a prominent personality in the salon of her father, Paolo Branca, which was once dubbed "The Temple of Music" by the famed opera composer Gaetano Donizetti.

The arrangement of the figure at a three-quarter angle, her arm resting on a chair covered with an ermine mantle spread, creates a series of planes that expand the sense of space in the painting.

At the center of the canvas, the figure of the woman, wrapped in luxurious black-silk robes, contrasts with the lace that frames her hands and face.