Portrait of Elena Viganò

Brera's own label calls her the singer, and she did sing, though never for a living. Elena Viganò was the daughter of Salvatore Viganò, who directed the ballet at La Scala until his death in 1821, and what made her a figure in Milan was her drawing room. Around 1818 some 15 men came most evenings and about 40 on Fridays. Stendhal, who had worshipped her father's ballets, spent a month among them, and by his own later account the two of them fell out and he stopped being asked. This portrait comes 23 years after that, painted in 1841 by Marie-Éléonore Godefroid, a Paris portraitist trained in the studio of François Gérard. Elena was 48. The picture belongs to Brera and does not hang there. You will find it in the theatre museum at La Scala.