Past Exhibition

Goya

A young girl with pale skin, rosy cheeks, and blond hair stands facing us in front of a landscape with forests and mountains in this vertical portrait painting. The girl looks at us with wide, gray eyes under delicately arched eyebrows. She has a short, rounded nose, and her full, pink lips are parted. Her smooth, rounded cheeks are flushed. She wears a lace-trimmed, sky-blue, scoop-necked bodice that comes to a V at her waist, a full, ankle-length black skirt, and a white bonnet with a royal-blue ribbon, which has a pink rose at the bow. Her long, white, lacy veil, called a mantilla, drapes over the hat, over her shoulders, and to her waist. One end of the mantilla drapes over her left wrist, to our right. The other end is pinned under the back of her other hand, which rests against that hip. One cobalt-blue, pointed shoe with a silver buckle peeks out under her skirt. A small, shaggy, white-haired dog sits at her feet to our right. A low, gray stone wall behind the girl and dog angles away from us to the left. Some plants with dark green leaves grow in front of the wall to our left. Beyond the wall, pine-green, treed foothills rise to meet rocky, nickel-gray mountains under a ice-blue sky with pale, petal-pink clouds kicking up over the mountains. An inscription in all capital letters is painted in black in the lower left corner: “LA S.D. MARIA TERESA HIXA DEL SER. INFANTE D. LUIS DE EDAD DE DOS ANOS Y NUEVE MESES.” A crimson-red letter “B.” is painted to the left nearby. In the lower right corner, the number “15.” is painted in white and the number “5.” is painted in red.
Francisco Goya, María Teresa de Borbón y Vallabriga, later Condesa de Chinchón, 1783, oil on canvas, Ailsa Mellon Bruce Collection, 1970.17.123

Details

  • Dates

    -

  • Locations

    West Building, Main Floor, Galleries 29, 33, Lobby A
A young girl with pale skin, rosy cheeks, and blond hair stands facing us in front of a landscape with forests and mountains in this vertical portrait painting. The girl looks at us with wide, gray eyes under delicately arched eyebrows. She has a short, rounded nose, and her full, pink lips are parted. Her smooth, rounded cheeks are flushed. She wears a lace-trimmed, sky-blue, scoop-necked bodice that comes to a V at her waist, a full, ankle-length black skirt, and a white bonnet with a royal-blue ribbon, which has a pink rose at the bow. Her long, white, lacy veil, called a mantilla, drapes over the hat, over her shoulders, and to her waist. One end of the mantilla drapes over her left wrist, to our right. The other end is pinned under the back of her other hand, which rests against that hip. One cobalt-blue, pointed shoe with a silver buckle peeks out under her skirt. A small, shaggy, white-haired dog sits at her feet to our right. A low, gray stone wall behind the girl and dog angles away from us to the left. Some plants with dark green leaves grow in front of the wall to our left. Beyond the wall, pine-green, treed foothills rise to meet rocky, nickel-gray mountains under a ice-blue sky with pale, petal-pink clouds kicking up over the mountains. An inscription in all capital letters is painted in black in the lower left corner: “LA S.D. MARIA TERESA HIXA DEL SER. INFANTE D. LUIS DE EDAD DE DOS ANOS Y NUEVE MESES.” A crimson-red letter “B.” is painted to the left nearby. In the lower right corner, the number “15.” is painted in white and the number “5.” is painted in red.
Francisco Goya, María Teresa de Borbón y Vallabriga, later Condesa de Chinchón, 1783, oil on canvas, Ailsa Mellon Bruce Collection, 1970.17.123

Overview: The Condesa de Chinchón, lent by the Ducal House of Sueca in Madrid, was shown in this exhibition together with 5 other paintings on loan from Spain. 8 paintings, 11 drawings, and 22 prints by Francisco de Goya from the National Gallery were also on view. The loans from Spain were facilitated by Baron Thyssen-Bornemisza, who had shown an exhibition of Goya paintings from private Spanish collections the previous summer at his Villa Favorita in Lugano. The exhibition was timed to coincide with the world premiere of Gian Carlo Menotti's new opera Goya at the Kennedy Center, starring Placido Domingo. Queen Sophia of Spain attended the opening.

Sponsor: The exhibition was supported by a grant from the Pacific Telesis Foundation and by an indemnity from the Federal Council on the Arts and the Humanities.

Attendance: 81,740

Brochure: Goya: The Condesa de Chinchón and Other Paintings, Drawings, and Prints from Spanish and American Private Collections and the National Gallery of Art, by Frances Feldman. Washington, DC: National Gallery of Art, 1986.

You may also like

Two men on logs surrounded by the rapids of the Hudson River with green trees on both sides and a blue sky with white puffy clouds.

Exhibition:  American Landscapes in Watercolor from the Corcoran Collection

Exhibition:  Photography and the Black Arts Movement, 1955–1985