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Shown from the hips up, a pale-skinned, heavy-set, elegantly dressed man sits at the corner of a table, looking at us in this vertical portrait painting. Against a dark brown background, the man’s body is angled to our left, and he stares at us from the corners of his brown eyes. His eyebrows are drawn together, and his pink lips are set in a line. His round face is cleanshaven, and he has full, flushed cheeks and a double chin. His gray hair is brushed back off his forehead and curls in a furling row over each ear. His black, high-necked coat is densely decorated with loosely painted gold leaves and patterns around the collar and down the front. A gold, starburst-like medal hangs from a short ribbon striped in white and light blue amid the gold trim. The coat’s wide, scarlet-red cuffs are lined with gold buttons and are also decorated with gold trim. A froth of white lace nestles at his throat. The coat is buttoned over his chest and drapes open across his hips over a red garment, possibly a vest, also edged with gold decoration. The tail of his black coat hangs down under the arm of his chair, which has a curving, gold wood frame and crimson-red upholstery. The man’s left elbow, closer to us, rests on the arm of his chair, and that hand is tucked into the gap between buttons of his red garment. His other hand rests on the pine-green cloth covering the table in the lower left corner of the composition. He holds a folded piece of paper in that hand, which rests on more papers. The folded paper is painted with the words, “El Sor Dn Antonio Noriega Tesorero General F. Goya 1801.” There is more writing on the front of the tablecloth, but it is difficult to make out.

Francisco Goya

Don Antonio Noriega, 1801

West Building, Main Floor — Gallery 52

Medium

oil on canvas

Dimensions

overall: 102.6 x 80.9 cm (40 3/8 x 31 7/8 in.)

framed: 128.3 x 105.4 x 12.7 cm (50 1/2 x 41 1/2 x 5 in.)

Credit Line

Samuel H. Kress Collection

Accession Number

1961.9.74

Artists / Makers

Francisco Goya (artist) Spanish, 1746 - 1828

Image Use

This image is in the public domain.
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Inscription

on paper held in sitter's hand: El Sor Dn / Antonio / Noriega / Tesorero / General / F. Goya / 1801; lower left on tablecloth: Dn Antonio Noriega de [Ba]da caballero y Regidor de la / Rly.distinguida Orden Espanola de don. C. III; Diputado / en Corte del Principe de Asturias. Director genl de las / Temporalidades de España e Indias y de la Rl Negocia / cion del Giro: Del Consejo de s.m. en el Rly Supremo del / Hacienda y su Tesorero General etc. etc. (D[o]n Antonio de [Ba]da knight and Councillor of the Royal and distinguished Spanish Order of Don C[arlos] III; Delegate in the Court of the Prince of Asturias. Director general of the Revenues of Spain and the Indies and of the Royal Bank of the Exchange: Of the Council of His Majesty...

Provenance

Purchased from a private collector in Madrid by Freiherr Ferdinand Eduard von Stumm [1843-1925], while he was ambassador of the German Empire to the court of Madrid, 1887-1892;[1] (his estate sale, Günther Deneke Auktionhaus, Berlin, 4 October 1932, 19, no. 87); (Wildenstein & Co., Paris and New York);[2] sold 1955 to the Samuel H. Kress Foundation, New York;[3] gift 1961 to NGA.

[1] August L. Mayer, "The Portrait of Don Antonio Noriega by Goya," Apollo 22 (1935): 49. The dates of Stumm's appointment as ambassador to Madrid are established by Almanach de Gotha (1890)127: 680 and Almanach de Gotha (1892)129: 786.

[2] Mrs. Ay-Whang Hsia, Vice President of Wildenstein & Co., New York, letter of 14 September 1988 in NGA curatorial files.

[3] A letter dated 8 February 1955 from Wildenstein & Co. to the Kress Foundation outlines the agreement for the sale of two paintings and a bronze figure (see copy in NGA curatorial files and The Kress Collection Digital Archive, https://kress.nga.gov/Detail/objects/674). One of the paintings was Portrait of Don Antonio Nortega[sic] by Goya.

Associated Names

Deneke Auktionhaus, Günther
Kress Foundation, Samuel H.
Private Collection (NGA Former Owner)
Stumm, Ferdinand Eduard von, Freiherr
Wildenstein & Co., Inc.

Exhibition History

1935: Goya, Bibliotéque Nationale, Paris, 1935, 60, no. 251.

1941: The Art of Goya, The Art Institute of Chicago, 1941, 45, no. 70.

1950: Goya: A Loan Exhibition for the Benefit of the Institute of Fine Arts, Wildenstein, New York, 1950, 18, no. 16.

1952: Masterpieces of Painting Through Six Centuries, Allied Arts Association, Houston, 1952, 12, no. 23.

1986: Goya: The Condesa de Chinchon and Other Paintings, Drawings, and Prints from Spanish and American Private Collection and the National Gallery of Art, National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C., 1986-87, unpaginated brochure.

2008: Goya en tiempos de guerra [Goya in Times of War], Museo Nacional del Prado, Madrid, 2008, no. 32, repro.

2009: Loan, Museo de Bellas Artes de Asturias, Oviedo, Spain, 2009-2010.

Technical Summary

The support is a coarse, plain-weave fabric, lined to a very fine, plain-weave fabric. The left tacking edge was unfolded to form part of the picture surface and covered with paint by a later hand. Coarse particles in the thick red ground that covers the entire painting surface protrude through the thinly applied paint. Goya left the ground color visible in many places, utilizing it, for example, as a middle tone in parts of the flesh. There is scattered retouching in the head, left wrist, jacket, and background.

Bibliography

1928: Desparmet Fitz-Gerald, Xavier. L'oeuvre peint de Goya. 4 vols. Paris, 1928-1950: 2:289, no. 547; 2 (of plates), part 2:pl. 481.

1935: Mayer, August L. "The Portrait of Don Antonio Noriega by Goya." Apollo 22 (1935): 49, color repro. opp. 49.

1937: "Notable Works of Art Now on the Market." Advertising Supplement, The Burlington Magazine 71 (December, 1937): no. 18, repro.

1951: Sánchez Cantón, Francisco Javier. Vida y obras de Goya. Madrid, 1951: 170. Translated by Paul Burns. Madrid, 1964.

1956: Paintings and Sculpture from the Kress Collection Acquired by the Samuel H. Kress Foundation 1951-56. Introduction by John Walker, text by William E. Suida and Fern Rusk Shapley. National Gallery of Art. Washington, 1956: 90, no. 33, repro.

1958: Gaya Nuño, Juan Anotonio. La pintura española fuera de España; historia y catàlogo. Madrid, 1958: 160, no. 993.

1959: Paintings and Sculpture from the Samuel H. Kress Collection. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1959: 274, repro.

1964: Trapier, Elizabeth du Gué. Goya and His Sitters. New York, 1964: 23, 59, no. 39, figs. 39-40.

1965: Summary Catalogue of European Paintings and Sculpture. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1965: 61.

1968: National Gallery of Art. European Paintings and Sculpture, Illustrations. Washington, 1968: 53, repro.

1970: Gassier, Pierre, and Juliet Wilson. Vie et oeuvre de Francisco Goya. Paris, 1970. Translated by C. Hauch and J. Wilson. New York, 1971: 167, no. 801, repro. 197 (also 1981 ed: same pp. as above.).

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: 1:110, 292, no. 436; 3:figs. 703, 704.

1974: De Angelis, Rita. L'opera pittorica completa di Goya. Milan, 1974: 116, no. 399, repro.

1975: European Paintings: An Illustrated Summary Catalogue. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1975: 160, repro.

1977: Eisler, Colin. Paintings from the Samuel H. Kress Collection: European Schools Excluding Italian. Oxford, 1977: 229-230, fig. 224.

1979: Salas, Xavier de. Goya. Translated by G. T. Culverwell. London, 1979: 190, no. 381, repro.

1984: Camón Aznar, José. Francisco de Goya. 4 vols. Saragossa, 1984: 3:135, repro. 327.

1984: Walker, John. National Gallery of Art, Washington. Rev. ed. New York, 1984: 401, no. 571, color repro.

1985: European Paintings: An Illustrated Catalogue. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1985: 184, repro.

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: 21-24, color repro. 23.

2009: Iglesias, Juan Ignacio Noriega. Antonio Noriega de Bada: Un asturiano pintado por Goya. Oviedo, 2009: 32-33, repro.