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This is one of Goya’s liveliest male portraits. The sitter’s relaxed stance reflects the painter’s intimate response to a friend, a young liberal whose disheveled hair and garb in the mode of revolutionary France speaks not only of his affinity for contemporary French fashion, but also of his sympathy for current French politics.
Goya’s life spanned a period of political upheaval and military turmoil. In the early years of the nineteenth century, before he witnessed the horror of the Peninsular wars, Goya welcomed the idea of a Napoleonic invasion, believing the ideals of the French revolution to be the only antidote to the abuses of the Spanish monarchy. Bartolomé Sureda was one of a group of like-minded liberal intellectuals.
A clever young industrialist, Sureda studied cotton spinning in England in order to introduce the technique into Spain. Later he went to France to learn the secrets of Sèvres porcelain manufacture and in 1802 became director of the Spanish royal porcelain factory at Buen Retiro. During the French invasion of Spain, Napoleon considered him so important to Spanish industry that he detained him in France.
Since this portrait predates many of the sitter’s illustrious achievements, Goya presented him, not as a brilliant industrialist, but simply as an urbane young man.
More information on this painting can be found in the National Gallery publication Spanish Paintings of the Fifteenth through Nineteenth Centuries (PDF).
Object Data
Medium
oil on canvas
Dimensions
overall: 119.7 x 79.3 cm (47 1/8 x 31 1/4 in.)
framed: 137.8 x 98.4 cm (54 1/4 x 38 3/4 in.)
Credit Line
Accession Number
1941.10.1
Artists / Makers
Francisco Goya (artist) Spanish, 1746 - 1828
Image Use
This image is in the public domain.
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Detail Information
Provenance
Possibly Pedro Escat, Palma de Mallorca.[1] Sureda family, Madrid and Seville;[2] (Durand-Ruel et Cie, Paris and New York); purchased 28 September 1897 by Mr. and Mrs. H.O. Havemeyer [Henry Osborne Havemeyer, 1847-1907, and Louisine Waldron Elder, 1855-1929], New York;[3] by inheritance 1929 to their daughter, Mrs. Peter H.B. Frelinghuysen [née Adaline Havemeyer, 1884-1963], Morristown, New Jersey; gift 1941 to NGA.
Exhibition History
- 1912
- Loan Exhibition of Paintings by El Greco and Goya, M. Knoedler & Co., Inc., New York, 1912, no. 9.
- 1936
- Francisco Goya, His Paintings, Drawings and Prints, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, 1936, no. 8.
- 1986
- Goya: The Condesa de Chinchón and Other Paintings, Drawings and Prints from Spanish and American Private Collections and the National Gallery of Art, National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1986-87, unpaginated brochure.
- 1988
- Goya and the Spirit of the Enlightenment, Prado, Madrid; Museun of Fine Arts, Boston; The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, 1988-1989, no. 65.
- 1993
- Splendid Legacy: The Havemeyer Collection, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, 1993, no. 291, pl. 10.
- 1994
- Goya, Nationalmuseum, Stockholm, 1994-1995, no. 27, repro.
- 1996
- Goya 1746-1828, Museo del Prado, Madrid, 1996, no. 122, repro.
- 2001
- Goya: La imagen de la mujer [Goya: Images of Women], Museo Nacional del Prado, Madrid; National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C., 2001-2002, not in cat. (shown only in Washington).
- 2010
- Goya e il mondo moderno, Palazzo Reale, Milan, 2010, no. 6, repro.
- 2015
- Goya: The Portraits, National Gallery, London, 2015-2016, no. 41. repro.
Technical Summary
The painting is executed over a reddish brown ground of average thickness and is in very good condition except for small discolored retouches in the jacket and face and in the background. The paint is applied in a quick and assured manner; in many areas, the application is thin, allowing the ground color to show through the brushstrokes. The impastoed highlights still retain a good deal of the texture and were not flattened by the relining. The painting is close to its original size, having lost only the tacking edges.
Bibliography
- 1867
- Yriarte, Charles. Goya, sa biographie et le caralogue de l'oeuvre. Paris, 1867: 148.
- 1887
- Viñaza, Conde de la (Cipriano Muñoz y Manzano). Goya: su tiempo, su vida, sus obras. Madrid, 1887: 263, no. 120.
- 1902
- Lafond, Paul. Goya. Paris, 1902: 138, no. 214.
- 1903
- Loga, Valerian von. Francisco de Goya. Berlin, 1903: 204.
- 1908
- Calvert, Albert. Goya: An Account of His Life and Works. London, 1908: 140, no. 237.
- 1916
- Beruete y Moret, Aureliano de. Goya, pintor de retratos. Madrid, 1915: 174 (Also English ed. Translated by Selwyn Brinton. London, 1922: 208).
- 1924
- Mayer, August L. Francisco de Goya. Munich, 1923. Translated by Robert West [pseud.]. London, 1924: 166, no. 427.
- 1928
- Desparmet Fitz-Gerald, Xavier. L'oeuvre peint de Goya. 4 vols. Paris, 1928-1950: 2:220, no. 509, pl. 423.
- 1931
- H.O. Havemeyer Collection: Catalogue of Paintings, Prints, Sculpture and Objects of Art. Portland, Maine, 1931: 313, repro. 312.
- 1942
- Book of Illustrations. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1942: 251, repro. 212, as Don Bartolomé Sureda by Francisco José de Goya y Lucientes.
- 1945
- Cook 1945, 156-160, fig. 5.
- 1960
- Evans, Grose. Spanish Painting in the National Gallery of Art. Washington, D.C., 1960 (Booklet Number Ten in Ten Schools of Painting in the National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.): 38, color repro.
- 1961
- Havemeyer, Louisine W. Sixteen to Sixty: Memoirs of a Collector. New York, 1961: 136.
- 1963
- Walker, John. National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C. New York, 1963 (reprinted 1964 in French, German, and Spanish): 321, repro.
- 1964
- Trapier, Elizabeth du Gué. Goya and His Sitters. New York, 1964: 31-33, fig. 55.
- 1965
- Summary Catalogue of European Paintings and Sculpture. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1965: 60, as Don Bartolomé Sureda.
- 1968
- Gandolfo, Giampaolo et al. National Gallery of Art, Washington. Great Museums of the World. New York, 1968: 14, 127, color repro.
- 1968
- National Gallery of Art. European Paintings and Sculpture, Illustrations. Washington, 1968: 52, repro., as Don Bartolomé Sureda.
- 1970
- Gassier, Pierrre, and Juliet Wilson. Vie et oeuvre de Francisco Goya. Paris, 1970: 158, repro. 198, no. 813. Translated by Christine Hauch and Juliet Wilson. New York, 1971.
- 1971
- Gudiol y Ricart, José. Goya: 1746-1828; Biography, Analytical Study and Catalogue of His Paintings. Translated by Kenneth Lyons. 4 vols. New York, 1971: 1: 311, no. 533, fig. 839.
- 1974
- De Angelis, Rita. L'opera pittorica completa di Goya. Milan, 1974: 119, no. 445, repro. in reverse color pl. 30.
- 1975
- European Paintings: An Illustrated Summary Catalogue. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1975: 158, as Don Bartolomé Sureda.
- 1979
- Salas, Xavier de. Goya. London, 1979: color repro. 95; 102, no. 378, repro.
- 1984
- Camón Aznar, José. Francisco de Goya. 4 vols. Saragossa, 3: 159, color repro. 161.
- 1984
- Walker, John. National Gallery of Art, Washington. Rev. ed. New York, 1984: 404, no. 576, color repro., as Son Bartolomé Sureda.
- 1985
- European Paintings: An Illustrated Catalogue. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1985: 183, repro., as Don Bartolome Sureda
- 1990
- Brown, Jonathan, and Richard G. Mann. Spanish Paintings of the Fifteenth through Nineteenth Centuries. The Collections of the National Gallery of Art Systematic Catalogue. Washington, D.C., 1990: 12-15, color repro. 13.
- 1992
- National Gallery of Art. National Gallery of Art, Washington. New York, 1992: 92, repro.
- 2000
- Bartolomé Sureda (1769-1851): Arte e industria en la ilustración tardía. Exh. cat. Museo Municipal de Madrid, 2000: 183, repro. [not included in the exhibition].
- 2001
- Southgate, M. Therese. The Art of JAMA II: Covers and Essays from The Journal of the American Medical Association. Chicago, 2001: 66-67, 209, color repro.
- 2004
- Hand, John Oliver. National Gallery of Art: Master Paintings from the Collection. Washington and New York, 2004: 268-269, no. 217, color repro.
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