Goya and the Altamira Family
By special
arrangement with the Banco de España, from April 22 through August 3, The
Metropolitan Museum of Art will reunite for the first time four portraits
painted by
that were commissioned by the Count of
Altamira, who was a director of the bank. Goya and the Altamira Family will consist of
Banco de España’s portrait of the Count of Altamira; the Metropolitan’s beloved Manuel Osorio Manrique de Zuñiga, the so-called “Red Boy;” the beautiful portrait of Manuel’s mother and
sister,Condesa de
Altamira and her Daughter, María Agustina, from the Metropolitan Museum’s Robert Lehman Collection; and a portrait
of Manuel Osorio’s brother Vicente Joaquin de Toledo, from a private collection.
All four portraits were painted between 1786 and 1788 when Goya was beginning
to experiment with aristocratic portraiture. A fifth portrait depicting Count
Altamira’s middle son, Juan María Osorio, was painted around the same time by
Agustín Esteve, one of Goya’s pupils, and will be lent by the Cleveland Museum
of Art. (Text: Metropolitan Museum of Art New York)