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Oil painting of a man in a blue coat with white hair, standing and staring off to the right.
Oil painting of a man in a blue coat with white hair, standing and staring off to the right, de…
#183: By Xavier F. Salomon, Deputy Director and Peter Jay Sharp Chief Curator Transcript

The piece of paper the sitter holds reads, “The Duke of Osuna, by Goya.” Don Pedro de Alcántara Téllez-Girón, ninth Duke of Osuna, together with his wife, was one of Goya’s most important patrons. Only the royal family ordered more works from the Spanish artist than this distinguished nobleman, who commissioned more than 24 paintings for his country palace outside Madrid.

The duke was Lieutenant General of the Armies and later ambassador to the Viennese court. As a patron of the arts and letters, he was appointed to the Royal Spanish Academy, and in 1795, King Charles IV conferred on him the Order of the Golden Fleece. Dressed simply but elegantly in this portrait, he stands against a plain dark background. He does not wear the Golden Fleece—perhaps Goya made this picture slightly earlier than 1795, or maybe the Duke commissioned a more informal portrait.

The Duke and his wife, María Josefa de la Soledad Alonso-Pimentel y Tellez Girón, who was in her own right the Countess-Duchess of Benavente, were a sophisticated and enlightened couple. Their family portrait by Goya shows them as progressive and unceremonious parents, who sought to create a familial environment with their children, following the contemporary theories of French philosophers like Rousseau.

Don Pedro, Duque de Osuna

 (Spanish, 1746–1828)
Dateca. 1790s
MediumOil on canvas
Dimensions44 1/2 × 32 3/4 in. (113 × 83.2 cm)
Credit LinePurchased by The Frick Collection, 1943
Accession number1943.1.151
Commentary

Don Pedro de Alcántara Téllez-Girón y Pacheco (1755–1807), ninth Duque de Osuna, was one of Spain’s wealthiest and most talented noblemen during the reigns of Charles III and Charles IV. An enthusiastic and enlightened patron of the arts and sciences, the Duke seems in this portrait to exhibit the responsive, keen-witted personality that made him a popular figure with the intelligentsia of his day. After the royal court, he and his wife were Goya’s most faithful patrons, commissioning more than twenty-four works including portraits, religious subjects, and a famous set of decorative canvases for their country palace outside Madrid.

Source: Art in The Frick Collection: Paintings, Sculpture, Decorative Arts, New York: Harry N. Abrams, 1996.

Collection History

Ninth to twelfth Dukes of Osuna, Madrid. Osuna sale, May, 1896, Madrid, Lot 63, bought by H. T. Dannat, Paris (evidently with Gaston Linden, Paris). Sold by Dannat to Agnew, November 28, 1901. Acquired from Agnew by J. Pierpont Morgan, July 18, 1902. Knoedler. Frick, 1943.

Source: Paintings in The Frick Collection: French, Italian and Spanish. Volume II. New York: The Frick Collection, 1968.

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