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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.)

Accession Number

1941.10.1

Artists / Makers

Francisco Goya (artist) Spanish, 1746 - 1828

Image Use

This image is in the public domain.
Read our full Open Access policy for images .

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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