Francisco de Goya

María Amalia de Aguirre y Acedo, Marchioness of Montehermoso (María Amalia de Aguirre y Acedo, marquesa de Montehermoso)

María Amalia de Aguirre y Acedo, Marchioness of Montehermoso (María Amalia de Aguirre y Acedo, marquesa de Montehermoso)
Datos Generales
Cronología
Ca. 1810
Ubicación
Private collection
Dimensiones
170 x 103 cm
Técnica y soporte
Oil on canvas
Reconocimiento de la autoría de Goya
Undisputed work
Titular
Private collection
Ficha: realización/revisión
02 Apr 2010 / 16 Jun 2023
Inventario
-
Otros títulos:
The Marchioness of Montehermoso (La marquesa de Montehermoso)
Historia

The reason for the commissioning of this portrait is not known, although we do know that Goya had enjoyed the support of the Marquis of Montehermoso, the sitter's father, who died in 1811.

This painting has been in a number of different collections: M. M. Boussod and Valadon of Paris; M. Heilbuth of Berlin; that of the Marchioness of Ganay, Paris; Galerie Georges Petit; and M. Bemberg, Paris, until it entered a private collection in 2001.

Análisis artístico

María Amalia de Aguirre y Acedo was Duchess of Castro Terreño, Countess of Echauz and El Vado, Señora of Villafañe and Marchioness of Montehermoso. She was born in Vitoria in 1801.

This work was presented for the first time in the magazine Les Arts (1900, no. 96, p.7): "We have before us one of Goya's most beautiful portraits, in which the whites of the girl's dress, which are of an incredible quality, are particularly admirable".

The girl, painted when she was ten or eleven years of age, is shown standing in the centre of the composition. She is wearing a long semi-sheer white dress that reaches down to her ankles. In her right hand she holds a bunch of white lilies, a symbol of purity and virginity. She is wearing her hair up, revealing her rosy face, which is tinged with a certain melancholic air. The background here is not the neutral space employed in most of Goya's portraits. Instead, we see a group of bushes in different tones of green, ranging from dark to light, providing a touch of luminosity, accentuated by the white dress of the subject, and giving the whole a sense of serenity and tranquillity.

According to Manuela Mena, this portrait of María Amalia is the first work in which we can see Goya's change of style towards something resembling pre-Romanticism, motivated in this instance, perhaps, by the model and her expression of premature maturity.

Exposiciones
  • Goya en tiempos de guerra
    Museo Nacional del Prado
    Madrid
    2008
    consultant editor Manuela B. Mena Marqués, from April 14th to July 13th 2008
  • Goya
    Basle
    2021
Bibliografía
  • DESPARMET FITZ - GERALD, Xavier
    L'œuvre peint de Goya. 4 vols
    Bibliography']['number
    París
    1928-1950
    p. 41, cat. 322
  • GASSIER, Pierre y WILSON, Juliet
    Vie et ouvre de Francisco de Goya
    Bibliography']['number
    ParísOffice du livre
    1970
    p. 261, cat. 880
  • GUDIOL RICART, José
    Bibliography']['number
    BarcelonaPolígrafa
    1970
    vol. I, p. 261, cat. 880
  • MENA MARQUÉS, Manuela B.
    Goya en tiempos de guerra
    Bibliography']['number
    MadridMuseo Nacional del Prado
    2008
    pp. 260 y 261 (il.), cat. 69
Enlaces externos
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