Manuel Osorio Manrique de Zúñiga

Manuel Osorio Manrique de Zúñiga
Artist Francisco Goya
Year 1787–88
Medium Oil on canvas
Dimensions 127 cm × 101.6 cm (50 in × 40.0 in)
Location Metropolitan Museum of Art

Manuel Osorio Manrique de Zúñiga is a portrait painting by Francisco Goya.[1] It is also known as Goya's Red Boy.[2]

History

Vicente Joaquin Osorio de Moscoso y Guzmán Fernández de Córdoba (1756–1816), Count of Altamira, had hired Goya for several family portraits. Altamira held many titles and was also a director of the Banco de San Carlos.[3] In 1786, after painting several portraits of the court, Goya was nominated painter to Charles III.[4] This painting, from 1787–88, is of his youngest son, Manuel, who was born in April 1784 and died at age eight on June 12, 1792.[5]

Description

Manuel is dressed in a red costume. He holds a string attached to his pet magpie, who is holding a calling card of the painter. On his left is a cage of finches. Three cats are intently watching the magpie on his right.[1]

Analysis

The pets in this portrait have been analyzed in many different ways. The caged birds may symbolize the soul, the cats may be an evil force.[1] For example, Goya shows a cat among the creatures in The Sleep of Reason Produces Monsters, part of The Caprices.[6]

Legacy

In 1926, Kathryn Bache Miller fell in love with this painting while at the Paris art gallery of Joseph Duveen. Her father, Jules Bache, then purchased it for $275,000.[7] The painting was hung prominently in her living room. Her interior decorator, Billy Baldwin, described her attachment to it as if it were a living being.[2] Her father bequeathed the painting to the Metropolitan Museum of Art, but it was allowed to be shown periodically in Miller's apartment until she died in 1979.[8]

From April 22 to August 3, 2014, the museum reunited Manuel with his parents in the exhibit Goya and the Altamira Family.[9] The exhibit also included portraits of his two brothers and his sister.[10]

References

  1. 1 2 3 "Manuel Osorio Manrique de Zuñiga (1784–1792)". Metropolitan Museum of Art.
  2. 1 2 Wolf, Riva (2010). "Goya's 'Red Boy': The Making of a Celebrity". In Schroth, Sarah. Art in Spain and the Hispanic World: Essays in Honor of Jonathan Brown (PDF). pp. 144–73.
  3. ↑ Salomon (2014), p. 27.
  4. ↑ Salomon (2014), p. 22.
  5. ↑ Salomon (2014), p. 34.
  6. ↑ "The Sleep of Reason Produces Monsters: Plate 43 of The Caprices". Metropolitan Museum of Art.
  7. ↑ Behrman, Samuel Nathaniel (1951). Duveen. The Story of the Most Spectacular Art Dealer of All Time. pp. 78–81.
  8. ↑ Salomon (2014), pp. 4–6.
  9. ↑ Rosenberg, Karen. "That Little Lost Boy in Red, Back With His Family". The New York Times.
  10. ↑ "Goya and the Altamira Family". Metropolitan Museum of Art.

Bibliography

  • Salomon, Xavier F. (2014). "Goya and the Altamira Family". The Metropolitan Museum of Art Bulletin (Spring 2014).
  • "Manuel Osorio Manrique de Zuñiga (1784–1792), by Goya". Metropolitan Museum of Art.
This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike. Additional terms may apply for the media files.