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| Francisco Goya Portrait of Queen María Luisa 1789 Prado |
"There was a lot of very savage gossip about Maria Luisa. The Russian Ambassador said she had the 'hectic mask of a ravaged courtesan', and Napoleon described the shock of meeting her when she and her husband were on their way to exile in France. She was by then in her early fifties with yellow and red flowers tucked in her grey hair and wearing an orange crepe dress she had managed to borrow from the Empress Josephine. 'She has her past and her character written on her face,' said Napoleon, 'and it surpasses anything one dares imagine.'"
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| Francisco Goya Portrait of King Charles IV 1789 Prado |
"I had forgotten to bring a pencil, but a guard lent me one and watched as I made notes in the room in which two violoncellos, two violins and a viola, all made by Stradivarius, were held in glass cases like a collection of stuffed birds, beautifully preserved and as mute as if they were carved from stone. These instruments had belonged to Charles IV. He used to enjoy playing the violin, he even played something for Goya, in the days when the Court Painter was still able to listen. But the King was so unskilled at his music that when he played to an audience, a second violinist would be stationed behind a curtain, to accompany him and carry him over the difficult bits."
– from Old Man Goya by Julia Blackburn (New York : Pantheon, 2002)
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| Francisco Goya Portrait of the Dowager Marchioness of Villafranca ca. 1795 Prado |
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| Francisco Goya Portrait of the Marchioness of Pontejos ca. 1786 National Gallery of Art (U.S.) |
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| Francisco Goya The Marchioness of Villafranca painting a portrait of her husband 1804 Prado |
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| Francisco Goya Portrait of the Duke of Alba 1795 Prado |
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| Francisco Goya The Duchess of Alba with her former governess La Beata 1795 Prado |
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| Francisco Goya Portrait of Don Andrés del Peral 1798 oil on panel National Gallery, London |
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| Francisco Goya Portrait of Gaspar Melchor de Jovellanos 1798 Prado |
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| Francisco Goya Portrait of the Countess of Chinchón 1800 Prado |
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| Francisco Goya Portrait of Tadea Arias de Enríquez ca. 1789 Prado |
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| Francisco Goya Portrait of the Duchess of Abrantes 1816 Prado |
The final two portraits by Goya were acquired in Spain in the 1890s by Mr. and Mrs. H.O. Havemeyer, the rapacious yet discerning New York collectors. Much of their vast accumulation was bequeathed in the 1920s by Mrs. Havemeyer to the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York. Each of her three children also received substantial groups of paintings. Many of those that descended to Adaline Havemeyer were later donated in memory of her parents to the National Gallery of Art in Washington DC. This commendable gift included the fresh and splendid pair below.
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| Francisco Goya Portrait of Bartolomé Sureda y Miserol ca. 1803-04 National Gallery of Art (U.S.) |
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| Francisco Goya Portrait of Thérèse Louise de Sureda ca. 1803-04 National Gallery of Art (U.S.) |