María Teresa de Borbón y Vallabriga, later Condesa de Chinchón
Francisco Goya·1783
Historical Context
María Teresa de Borbón y Vallabriga, later Condesa de Chinchón, painted in 1783 and held at the National Gallery of Art, depicts the young daughter of the Infante Don Luis de Borbón at just three years old. The child’s elaborate court dress and formal pose contrast poignantly with her tiny size and innocent face. Goya painted the Borbón family at their country residence in Arenas de San Pedro, where the Infante lived in semi-exile after his morganatic marriage. María Teresa would later marry Manuel Godoy, the powerful Spanish prime minister. This early portrait demonstrates Goya’s developing ability to capture the individual personalities of his sitters, even very young children.
Technical Analysis
Goya's oil on canvas captures the child with extraordinary freshness and spontaneity, using a luminous palette and loose, fluid brushwork that contrasts with the more formal court portrait conventions of the period.
Look Closer
- ◆Notice the tiny girl in elaborate court dress: the contrast between the child's small scale and the formal adult costume creates a poignant effect that Goya emphasizes rather than smooths over.
- ◆Look at the luminous palette and loose brushwork: Goya captures childhood's freshness and spontaneity through lighter color and more fluid handling than his adult portraits.
- ◆Observe the formal pose that the three-year-old cannot quite maintain: the slight awkwardness of the child's stance within the adult portrait convention is itself a kind of truth.
- ◆Find the irony of the future: this child in a court dress will grow up to marry the powerful, domineering Manuel Godoy, a destiny Goya could not have foreseen but which his later Countess of Chinchón portrait makes heartbreaking.
Provenance
Commissioned by the Infante Don Luis de Borbón [1727-1785], Palace of Arenas de San Pedro, near Avila; by inheritance to his daughter, the sitter [1779-1828], Palace at Boadilla del Monte, near Madrid;[1] by inheritance to her only child, Carlota Luisa de Godoy y Borbón [1800-1886], Condesa de Chinchón, Duquesa de Alcudia y de Sueca, Boadilla del Monte, in whose possession it was recorded in 1867 and 1886;[2] by inheritance to her son, Adolfo Ruspoli [1822-1914], Duque de Sueca, Conde de Chinchón;[3] possibly bought in or purchased by the family at his (liquidation sale, Paris, 7 February 1914);[4] his daughter, Maria Teresa Ruspoli y Alvarez de Toledo, wife of Henri-Melchior Cognet Chappuis, Comte de Maubou de la Roue, Paris;[5]; her nephew, Don Camilo Carlos Adolfo Ruspoli y Caro [1904-1975], Conde de Chinchón, Duque de Alcudia y de Sueca, Madrid, by 1951.[6] Sold by the family by March 1957 to (Wildenstein & Co., New York);[7] purchased 2 March 1959 by Ailsa Mellon Bruce, New York;[8] gift to NGA 1970. [1]Pierre Gassier, "Les portraits peints par Goya pour l'Infant Don Luis de Borbón à Arenas de San Pedro", _Revue de l'Art_ 43 (1979): 21, note 24. [2] Charles Yriarte, _Goya: sa biographie et le catalogue de l'oeuvre_ (Paris, 1867): 138; El Conde de la Viñaza, _Goya: su tiempo, su vida, sus obras_ (Madrid, 1887): 225, no. 29. See also Gassier 1979, 21, note 26. Biographical information on the Condesa and her descendants is given by _Almanach de Gotha_ (Leipzig, 1939): 614-615; Juan Moreno de Guerra y Alonso, _Guía de la grandeza_ (Madrid, 1917): 52; _World Nobility and Peerage_, vol. 87 (London, 1955): 158, 171; Domingo Araujo Affonso, Robert Cuny, Alberto de Mestas, Simon Konarski, and Hervé Pincteau, _Le sang de Louis XIV_, 2 vols. (Braga, 1961), 1:192; 2:492-497. [3] Recorded in his possession by Richard Oertel, _Francisco de Goya_ (Leipzig, 1907): 54 and Albert F. Calvert, _Goya: An Account of his Life and Peace_ (London, 1908): 60. Also noted in 29 November 1988 letter from Ay-Whang Hsia of Wildenstein & Co., New York, NGA curatorial files. [4] According to Cleveland Museum of Art records (_European Paintings of the 16th, 17th, and 18th Centuries_; Cleveland, 1982; p. 486) for Goya's _Portrait of the Infante Don Luis de Borbón_, which has the same provenance as the NGA portrait, Adolfo Ruspoli died in Paris on 4 February 1914, after which his estate was liquidated on 7 February 1914. Xavier Desparmet Fitz-Gerald, _L'oeuvre peint de Goya_ ,4 vols. (Paris, 1928-1950):2:13, no. 292 claims that this painting was in the liquidation sale. Perhaps it was bought in or purchased by the family at this time. [5] 29 November 1988 letter from Wildenstein's. [6] 29 November 1988 letter from Wildenstein's. [7] 29 November 1988 letter from Wildenstein's. [8] Purchase date from Wildenstein's is noted in the Ailsa Mellon Bruce notebook, NGA curatorial files.
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