Asphyxia! (left part)

In February 1884 the Milan newspapers followed a story for a few days. A young army officer and a young woman had taken a room in a hotel facing the railway station, ordered a lavish meal with good wine and champagne, spent the evening writing letters, and asked the boy who lit their stove whether they could have some charcoal. Their first plan, the papers reported, had been to die from the fumes. In the end the officer used a revolver.

Morbelli painted the scene that same year, on a canvas about three metres wide, and took his title from that first plan. The reception was harsh, and he later cut the picture in two himself. He showed the right-hand part, with the bodies of the lovers, on its own in London in 1888, and it is now in a private collection. This is the room without them. Withered flowers lie on the floor, a top hat has been left on the armchair, the bottles from the dinner stand empty, and a clock sits on a shelf by the window while the first light of the next day comes through the blinds. The flowers were Morbelli's own addition, since none of the newspaper reports mention any.