(Fuendetodos 1746–1828 Bordeaux)
Portrait-sketch of the Infanta María Isabel (1789–1848), later Queen of the Two Sicilies, half-length, for the Portrait of the Family of Carlos IV,
oil on canvas, 71.8 x 59.1 cm, framed

Provenance:
probably Collection of the Infanta María Isabel (1789–1848), later Queen of the Two Sicilies, Naples;
possibly by descent to her daughter María Amalia de Borbón-Dos Sicilias (1818–1857) and her husband Sebastián Gabriel de Borbón y Braganza (1811–1875), Infante of Spain and Portugal, Madrid/Pau, 1832 or 1847; or possibly by descent to her daughter Luisa Carlota de Borbón-Dos Sicilias (1804–1844), Naples/Madrid, 1819 and thence by descent to her daughter María Cristina (1833–1902), Infanta of Spain and Portugal, Madrid and her husband Sebastián Gabriel de Borbón y Braganza (1811–1875), Infante of Spain and Portugal, Madrid/Pau, 1860;
possibly by descent to their son Pedro de Alcántara de Borbón y Borbón (1862–1892), 1st Duque de Dúrcal, Madrid/Paris (label on the reverse: ppabdc, possibly for Prince Pierre de Alcántara de Bourbon, Duc de Durcal);
probably Mariano Hernando, Madrid (according to Heinemann archive, inv. no. 11584);
Dowdeswell and Dowdeswell’s Gallery, London, 1912;
sold to M. Durand Ruel and Bernheim, Paris, 1912;
with Heinemann, Munich, 1912–1916;
sold to Dr. Richard Werner, Stuttgart, September 1916;
with Durand Ruel and Bernheim, Paris, 1924;
sold to Baron Hugo Ernst von Grundherr, Luzern, 1924;
Collection of Count Alessandro Contini Bonacossi, Florence, 1924;
and thence by descent to the present owner

Exhibited:
Rome, Galleria Nazionale d’Arte Moderna e Contemporanea, The Old Spanish Masters from the Contini-Bonacossi Collections, May – July 1930, no. 29 (as Goya);
Venice, XXVI Esposizione Biennale Internazionale d’Arte, 14 June – 19 October 1952 (as Goya, label on the reverse)

Literature:
probably El Conde de la Viñaza [C. Muñoz y Manzano], Goya. Su tiempo, su vida, sus obras, Madrid 1887, p. 217, no. IX (as ‘Retrato de la Infanta niña D.a María Isabel, futura mujer del Príncipe heredero de Nápoles. Estudio para el cuadro de la familia de Carlos IV.’, 74 x 60 cm, no photograph);
probably P. Lafond, Goya, Paris 1902, p. 118, no. 18 (as ‘Portrait de la jeune Infante Marie-Isabelle, plus tard femme du prince héritier de Naples. Etude pour le tableau de La famille de Charles IV.’, 74 x 60 cm, no photograph);
probably A. F. Calvert, Goya. An Account of his Life and Works. With 612 Reproductions from his Pictures, Etchings, and Lithographs, London 1908, p. 122, no. 4 (h) (‘Studies for the preceding picture [Portrait of the Family of Charles IV]. Princess Isabella, afterwards Queen of Naples’, no measurements, no photograph);
probably H. Stokes, Francisco Goya. A Study of the Work and Personality of the Eighteenth-Century Spanish Painter and Satirist, London 1914, pp. 236, 326, no. 12 (i) (as ‘Isabella, afterwards Queen of Naples’, no measurements, no photograph);
X. Desparmet Fitz-Gerald, L’œuvre peint de Goya. Catalogue raisonné, vol. II, Paris 1928–1950, p. 120, note to no. 402 (72 x 59 cm, no photograph);
R. Longhi, A. L. Mayer, The Old Spanish Masters from the Contini-Bonacossi Collection, Rome 1930, exhibition catalogue, cat. no. 29, plate XX (‘The picture […] is the real original study […]’, with measurements 56 x 42 cm);
R. Pallucchini et al. (ed.), XXVI Biennale di Venezia: catalogo, Venice 1952, first edition, exhibition catalogue, p. 353, no. 15 (as Francisco de Goya y Luciente ‘Ritratto della Infanta Isabel. Firenze, coll. Conte Alessandro Contini Bonacossi’, no measurements, no photograph);
J. A. Gaya-Nuño, La Pintura Española fuera de España. Historia y Catálogo, Madrid 1958, no. 985 (with measurements 56 x 42 cm, no photograph)

We are grateful to Guillaume Kientz for endorsing the attribution of the present painting after examination in the original.

This work is a preparatory sketch of the Infanta María Isabel de Borbón, painted by Goya in 1800 in preparation for his large Portrait of The Family of Carlos IV, today in the Museo del Prado, Madrid.

Goya’s preparatory sketches for the Portrait of the Family of Carlos IV

The present portrait of the Infanta María Isabel de Borbón, can be compared in style, colouring and format to five other known sketches of members of the royal family which were executed by Goya in preparation for the final group-portrait. These are: Infante Don Antonio Pascual de Borbón y Sajonia (72.5 x 59.4 cm), younger brother of Carlos IV; Infanta María Josefa de Borbón y Sajonia (74 x 60 cm), sister of Carlos IV; Infante Carlos María Isidro de Borbón y Parma (74 x 60 cm), second son of Carlos IV; Infante Francisco de Paula de Borbón y Parma (74 x 60 cm), youngest son of Carlos IV; and Infante Luis de Borbón, King of Etruria, Prince of Parma (72.5 x 59.4 cm), son-in-law of Carlos IV – all of which are conserved in the Museo del Prado, Madrid

The composition and treatment of these portrait-sketches are very similar. As in the present work, Goya positioned the sitters, in bust- or half-length towards the centre of the composition. The figures are executed with quick and vivid brushstrokes, suggesting he probably sketched each sitter in a single session. All sitters are depicted on a reddish-ochre ground, with a darker area of colour around them. In addition to the stylistic and technical similarities, according to Arturo Ansón Navarro of the Instituto ‘Goya’ de Zaragoza, the weave of the canvas of the present painting can be compared to the canvases of the other five portraits-sketches.

Goya’s Portrait of the Family of Carlos IV

The celebrated Portrait of the Family of King Carlos IV is well documented and can be reconstructed on the basis of contemporary letters and bills. Goya’s purchase of canvases for preparatory sketches of the royal family, to be made during a sojourn at the royal residence of Aranjuez, is recorded in a bill post-dated 23 July, 1800: ‘Gastos ocurridos en la Jornada del Real Sitio de Aranjuez, para sacar los diez retratos de sus Majestades y Real familia’ [‘Expenses for the journey to the royal palace of Aranjuez to paint the ten portraits of Their Majesties and the Royal Family’] (see Archivo General de Palacio, Madrid, Patrimonio Nacional, published by V. de Sambricio, Tapices de Goya, Madrid 1946, p. CXXXVIII, doc. 213).

In correspondence dated 22 April 1800 between Queen María Luisa, and her close confidant the First Minister of Spain, Manuel de Godoy y Álvarez de Faria Rios, she writes: ‘The King says, when he has finished painting your wife [María Teresa, Countess of Chinchón], Goya should come [to Aranjuez] to do the portrait of us all together’ (see C. Pereyra, Cartas confidenciales de la Reina María Luisa y de Don Manuel Godoy…, Madrid 1935, p. 304). According to records, Goya purchased materials in Madrid between 29 April and 7 May 1800 and arrived at the royal residence of Aranjuez with the primed canvases already attached to their stretchers (see M. Mena Marqués, La familia de Carlos IV. Goya, Madrid 2002, p. 133). He began to work on the preparatory sketches of the royal family after 7 May. Queen María Luisa writes again to Godoy on 9 June 1800, saying ‘Tomorrow Goya begins another portrait of me, all the others are finished, and all are very proper’ (see op. cit. Pereyra, 1935, p. 310). The present portrait-sketch of the 10-year-old Infanta María Isabel, who was the youngest daughter of King Carlos IV, would therefore have been painted between mid-May and 9 June 1800.

This previously little-known work has not been accepted by all scholars or comprehensively studied to date, but was considered to be an autograph work by Francisco José de Goya y Lucientes by Roberto Longhi and August L. Mayer in 1930; by Xavier Desparmet Fitz-Gerald in 1928–1950, and by Juan Antonio Gaya Nuño in 1958. It was exhibited as an autograph work by Goya at the XXVI Biennale di Venezia, held in 1952 (see literature).

Stylistic analysis of the portrait-sketch of the Infanta María Isabel

According to Arturo Ansón Navarro, the face of the Infanta María Isabel is painted with mastery and realism. In his opinion the eyes are executed in a manner typical of Goya: first he painted the iris and the pupil; then he outlined the upper eyelashes and filled the sclera of the eye with white, leaving some space uncovered, revealing the chromatic ochre of the imprimatura. Finally, he added a particular point of light or brightness in the pupils. The eyelashes and edges of the lower eyelids were painted in barely discernible reddish-ochre.

The eyes of the Infanta María Isabel, which express a childlike vivacity, are comparable to those in the Portrait of the Countess of Chinchón painted by Goya in April 1800, a month or two before the present sketch. The Countess of Chinchón was the wife of Manuel Godoy and her portrait is also conserved in the Museo del Prado, Madrid (inv. no. P007767).
The nose of the young Infanta is painted in a similar manner to the eyes with the highlights and nostrils given in light ochre. The mouth of the Infanta is also similar to that in the portrait of the aforementioned Countess of Chinchón. For the indentation of the lips, Goya used ochre-pinkish brushstrokes, with some lighter touches in the centre of the lips. It should be noted that some of the original brushstrokes in the present painting may have been lost during restoration, especially on the upper lip.

The cheekbones of the sitter in the present painting are rosy, with reddish touches on the left cheekbone, again, similar to those in the Chinchón portrait. Goya did not outline the right jaw, and the ochre preparation is perfectly visible. He suggested it with a slight darker rubbing, which served to define the lower part of the chin and in tonal gradation with the lighter ochre used for the neck. A similar solution was used by Goya in the portrait of the Infanta María Isabel in the final group-portrait of The Family of Carlos IV. The right ear is defined with the same tones, starting from an ochre base and with simple browner touches for the inner areas, and lighter and pinker for the edges and lobe of the ear.

Her ears are adorned by delicate, filigree earrings, painted with simple and quick white and yellowish brushstrokes, merely suggesting the highlights that describe the curvilinear forms of the oval hoops of the earrings. Goya painted similar earrings in the portrait-sketch of the Infanta María Josefa de Borbón. The left earring of the present Infanta María Isabel is barely visible and may have been lost through cleaning or abrasion.
The Infanta’s neck in the present portrait-sketch is more elongated and graceful than in the final painting of the Portrait of the Family of Carlos IV. In this work Goya limited himself to an abbreviated description of the upper body and clothing of the sitter, sketching the low-cut neckline of the dress. The dress is similar to the one worn by her mother, Queen María Luisa, in the final Portrait of the Family of Carlos IV and is in the style fashionable in France during this era. She wears a Greek muslin shirt, and over it an asymmetrical jubon with embroidery in gold and silver thread. Her shoulders are curved, and the sleeves of the dress are short and tight at the top of the arms, which are exposed. The short right sleeve is very loosely painted with broad blue-green brushstrokes and highlighted with yellow and white impastos with which he suggested the brightness of the golden threads. Evidently, as this was a sketch-study to be used for the large family portrait, Goya was not interested in specifying and defining more parts of the dress. The treatment here is very simplified, painted with rapid and discontinuous brushstrokes.

Her right forearm is only defined at the top with broad brushstrokes of light ochre, which are soon interrupted to merge with the reddish-ochre ground layer. Her left forearm remains in shadow and is left undefined, only suggested by a darker ochre shading. This is undoubtedly explained by the fact that this arm would be hidden by her mother’ dress in the final Portrait of the Family of Carlos IV.

In the present portrait-sketch, as in the final family portrait, the Infanta María Isabel, as all her family, is wearing the band of the Royal Decree of Carlos III of Spain. This order was instituted by a Royal Order in September 1771, to reward outstanding nobles, clergy, military, bourgeois and members of the royal administration who stood out for their enlightened ideas and for promoting the progress of the Crown of Spain, its institutions and its subjects in both continents (Europe and America). The band of the order had the white and blue colours of the Catholic symbol of the Immaculate Conception of the Virgin Mary, a dogma fervently defended in Spain since the Middle Ages and to which the Spanish monarch was devoted.

The Infanta María Isabel’s hair ornament

The Infanta’s hair, fashionable, curly and in a partial plait, with strands falling over her forehead, is resolved with quick and vibrant brushstrokes. Depth and volume are achieved by the use of different brown tones, highlighted in ochre and yellow. The hair is executed with great mastery.

Significantly, the hair of the Infanta in this present portrait-sketch is unadorned. In the final painting of The Family of Carlos IV, her hairstyle is unchanged, but she is depicted with an addition of a golden, arrow-shaped hair ornament. This hair ornament, included in the final portrait, is very similar to one worn by her mother, Queen Maria Luisa, in the same painting. We know from documents, that Godoy commissioned this arrow from a jeweller in Madrid as a gift to the Queen, and that it was not in her possession until sometime after mid-October 1800. Godoy writes to her on the 17th October 1800: ‘the arrow, my Lady, is a gold barrette with the blade and reed trimmed with diamonds […] I would have sent it immediately if I had someone to send it to’ (see M. T. Rodríguez Torres, Un retrato de Palafox en La Familia de Carlos IV, Madrid 2008, pp. 279, 283). It seems that the Queen was so delighted by the hair ornament that she commissioned a second, smaller version for her daughter, which would have been delivered no earlier than November 1800.

We are grateful to Arturo Ansón Navarro for endorsing the attribution of the present painting on the basis of photographs and for his extensive help in cataloguing this lot. He confirms that the present portrait-sketch of The Infanta María Isabel de Borbón is an autograph work by Francisco José de Goya y Lucientes.

Provenance of the present portrait-sketch in the 19th Century

The precise provenance of the present portrait-sketch of the Infanta María Isabel during the first few decades after its creation is at present unconfirmed, however, there is a label on the back of the painting, which Arturo Ansón Navarro has suggested gives a strong indication of its ownership during the latter part of the 19th century.

The label is attached to the central <s>cross</s>bar of the stretcher and is thought to have possibly been attached after the death of the celebrated collector, Infante Sebastián Gabriel de Borbón y Braganza (Rio de Janeiro 1811–1875 Pau) when an inventory of his collection was made. The label is written in ink, in French, and reads: ‘Goya n° 10072 / Portrait de l’Infante Isabelle / de Bourbon, reine de Deux Siciles’. Below, on the same label, in a different hand is written, this time in pencil: ‘ppabdc’. These initials appear to refer to Príncipe Pedro de Alcántara de Borbón y Borbón, 1st Duque of Dúrcal (Madrid 1862–1892 Paris), the son of Infante Sebastián Gabriel and his second wife, Infanta María Cristina de Borbón y Borbón-Dos Sicilias (Madrid 1833–1902). Príncipe Pedro lived in Paris from 1885 until his death in 1892 and part of his large collection was sold at the Hôtel Drouot in Paris in 1890. The present portrait-sketch of his maternal great grandmother appears not to have been included in this sale. It is possible that the portrait-sketch of Infanta María Isabel remained in Príncipe Pedro’s personal possession on account of the close familial connection.

Taking the label as a point of reference, it is possible to reconstruct the provenance of the present portrait-sketch from 1800 until the late 19th century.
It is entirely probable that the portrait-sketch accompanied the sitter herself to Naples after her marriage to Francesco I di Borbone, King of the Two Sicilies. It is possible that she gave the painting to her daughter, Luisa Carlota de Borbón-Dos Sicilias (Naples 1804–1844 Madrid), possibly on the occasion of her marriage to her uncle, her mother’s brother, the Infante Francisco de Paola de Borbón, youngest son of King Carlos IV in 1819. Later, Luisa Carlota could have passed the painting onto her own daughter María Cristina, the granddaughter of the sitter, who was to become the second wife of Infante Sebastián Gabriel de Borbón y Braganza in 1860.

Alternatively, it is also possible that Infanta María Isabel gave the portrait to her younger daughter, María Amalia de Borbón-Dos Sicilias, either on the occasion of María Amalia’s marriage, as his first wife, to Infante Sebastián Gabriel de Borbón y Braganza in 1832 or possibly as a bequest after her death in 1847.

Nevertheless, the portrait-sketch would have entered the collection of the Infante Sebastián Gabriel de Borbón y Braganza whether in 1832, 1847 or 1860, through either one of his two marriages. Therefore, it would at first have been located in Madrid and then Paris, after the exile of the Kings of Spain and their families after the Revolution of 1868.

Following the death of his father in 1875, the portrait-sketch would have become the property of Príncipe Pedro de Alcántara de Borbón y Borbón, 1st Duke of Dúrcal (Madrid 1862–1892 Paris).

Provenance of the present portrait-sketch in the 20th Century

20 May 1912: The painting was possibly acquired from Mariano Hernando.

1912: The painting was with Dowdeswell & Dowdeswell’s Gallery, London (confirmed by a label on the reverse and Durand Ruel archive).

6 June 1912: The work was sold to M. Durand Ruel et Bernheim, Paris (see Durand Ruel de Paris Photographic Archives, photo 7395).

May 1912 – September 1916: The portrait-sketch was with Heinemann Gallery, Munich (Heinemann archive, inv. no. 11584; see custom stamp on the horizontal bar of the stretcher ‘Zollstück/Hauptzollamt […] München’).

11 September 1916: The work was sold by the Heinemann Gallery, Munich to Richard Werner, Stuttgart.

22 March 1924: It was sold by M. Durand Ruel et Bernheim, Paris to Baron Hugo Ernst von Grundherr, Luzern (see custom stamp on the reverse, on the upper bar of the frame that reads in capital letters ‘LUZ’, which would indicate the passage through customs at the Swiss border by Baron von Grundherr).

1924: The painting was acquired for the collection of Alessandro Contini Bonacossi, Florence (see custom stamp on the central bar of the stretcher ‘12 DEC [192]4 and DOGANA DI [F]IRENZ[E]’) where it remained until his death in 1955 and was inherited by the present owner.

Technical analysis:

According to analysis by IRR, the present portrait-sketch was executed swiftly with no signs of preparatory drawing. The weave pattern and density of the original support were investigated by Maria Letizia Amadori using the painting images of the upper side. According to the images, the original support appears to be a coarse plain-weave fabric (1:1). Thread counting was carried out in two areas (1 x 1 cm) in which the preparation was thin and the canvas pattern was visible. Such a condition was not optimal because of the deformation (strain) of the canvas at the edges due to its fixing (stretching) to the stretcher. In these areas, thread counts are about 13-14th per cm.

Morphological observations carried out on a thread, sampled from the original canvas support of the present portrait, allowed the identification of hemp fibers. The use of hemp fabric, together with linen, is attested from the 18th until the early 19th century for the production of painting supports due to its good mechanical properties. Often threads made of different types of fibers can be found, most of them are hemp and linen in different percentages.

According to Palomino’s treatise on Spanish painting (1715–1724), the best and most usual canvas for large-scale paintings is what in Andalusia is called bramante crude and in Castile angulema, i.e. the canvas woven with raw hemp yarn.

More detailed technical analyses of this painting are available on request (please refer to the Old Master Paintings Department).

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