La Leocadia

La Leocadia, painted around 1820–23 as one of the Black Paintings on the walls of Goya's Quinta del Sordo, is traditionally identified as a portrait of Leocadia Weiss, the young widow who became his companion and housekeeper during his final years in Spain and accompanied him into French exile. The figure leans against what appears to be a mantilla-draped tomb or iron railing — an ambiguous structure between domestic and funerary reading — dressed entirely in mourning black, her expression unreadable, her gaze directed away from the viewer. As one of the fourteen paintings Goya applied directly to the plaster walls of his country house outside Madrid, La Leocadia was intended for no public audience; it was a private declaration made in the most permanent medium available, on the walls of a room he occupied. The transfer of the Black Paintings from wall to canvas by the Baron d'Erlanger in 1874 preserved works that would otherwise have been lost with the building's demolition; La Leocadia, as the sole surviving putative portrait from the series, occupies a unique place within it.

Goya renders the dark-veiled figure with broad, summary brushstrokes against the predominantly dark background. The minimal palette and the figure's enigmatic pose create an atmosphere of unresolved tension characteristic of the Black Paintings.