The ''Portrait of Doña Isabel de Porcel'' is an
oil-on-canvas
Oil painting is a painting method involving the procedure of painting with pigments combined with a drying oil as the binder. It has been the most common technique for artistic painting on canvas, wood panel, or copper for several centuries. ...
painting by the Spanish artist
Francisco de Goya
Francisco José de Goya y Lucientes (; ; 30 March 1746 – 16 April 1828) was a Spanish romantic painter and printmaker. He is considered the most important Spanish artist of the late 18th and early 19th centuries. His paintings, drawings, a ...
, painted around 1805. The portrait depicts Isabel Lobo Velasco de Porcel, who was born at
Ronda
Ronda () is a Municipalities in Spain, municipality of Spain belonging to the province of Málaga, within the autonomous community of Andalusia.
Its population is about 35,000. Ronda is known for its cliffside location and a deep canyon that ca ...
around 1780 and was the second wife of Antonio Porcel. Isabel's husband was 25 years older than she; they met when she was 20 years old. Antonio Porcel was a liberal and associate of
Manuel Godoy, Prince of Peace, who was a friend of
Gaspar Melchor de Jovellanos
Gaspar Melchor de Jovellanos (born Gaspar Melchor de Jove y Llanos, 5 January 1744 – 27 November 1811) was a Spain, Spanish Spanish Enlightenment literature, neoclassical statesman, author, philosopher and a major figure of the Age of Enlighte ...
, who in turn brought him in contact with Goya, who lived nearby; the painting is said to have been a gift from the artist in return for hospitality. A Goya portrait of Antonio Porcel, though much larger and so not a matching piece, was lost in a fire when the Jockey Club in
Buenos Aires
Buenos Aires, controlled by the government of the Autonomous City of Buenos Aires, is the Capital city, capital and largest city of Argentina. It is located on the southwest of the Río de la Plata. Buenos Aires is classified as an Alpha− glob ...
was destroyed in a riot in 1953.
The half-length portrait depicts a young woman dressed in typical Spanish attire, a white shirt and a black
mantilla
A mantilla is a traditional female liturgical lace or silk veil or shawl worn over the head and shoulders, often over a high hair ornament called a '' peineta'', particularly popular with women in Spain and Latin America. Within Christendom, ...
. In spite of her "
maja" attire, the richness of the textiles and her ladylike appearance give the picture an aristocratic elegance; at this time wealthy Spanish "people of fashion" often wore the styles of lower class urban dandies and their female equivalents, as seen in Goya's famous clothed version of ''
La Maja''.
The decisive gesture of her arms in the akimbo position and her confidence stand out. Her eyes and hair are light brown, her skin is pale, and her body is slightly turned to the left side, while her head gives balance by being turned to the opposite side. Goya achieves realism and deepness without adding secondary objects to the composition. One of the unique aspects of this painting is that the woman is looking towards the left side of the viewer and not towards him, which is the case of the majority of Goya's paintings.
The picture is used in several episodes of the 1967 BBC serialisation of the
Forsyte Saga.
Some scholars have recently cast doubts over its attribution.
See also
*
List of works by Francisco Goya
Notes
References
*Bozal, Valeriano. ''Francisco de Goya, vida y obra, (2 vols.)'' Madrid, Tf., 2005. .
*Glendinning, Nigel. ''Francisco de Goya, Madrid, Cuadernos de Historia 16 (col. «El arte y sus creadores», nº 30)'', 1993, p. 139
*
Neil MacLaren, revised Allan Braham, ''The Spanish School, National Gallery Catalogues'', 1970, National Gallery, London,
External links
National Gallery*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Portrait of Dona Isabel de Porcel
Portraits by Francisco Goya
Paintings in the National Gallery, London
1805 paintings
19th-century portraits
Portraits of women