Vicente Lopez y Portaña

Presumably commissioned or acquired from the artist by Caroline, Duchesse de Berry (1798-1870), sister-in-law of the sitter;
Thence by direct family descent to the present owners.

Undated manuscript inventory of the paintings belonging to the Duchesse de Berry, p. 79, nos. 87, 89 and 156;
I. Tamisier-Vétrois, 'L'ameublement de la Duchesse de Berry au Palais des Tuileries', inthe exhibiton catalogue Entre Cour et Jardin. Marie-Caroline, Duchesse de Berry, Musée de l'Ile-de-France, Sceaux 2007, p. 27, fig. 6.

The canvas is unlined. The signed paint surface is clean and secure, though under a slightly yellowed varnish. The work retains some impasto, most notably in the sitter's ring and collar. There are a number of small, scattered dents and scuffs to the paint surface, faintly visible in the catalogue illustration. A few of these have resulted in minor losses to the paint surface. No other damages can be discerned. Inspection under UV light is restricted by the layer of varnish. However, it does indicate scattered retouchings and infilling of craquelure in the background of the work and scattered spot retouchings to the sitter. His face remains largely untouched and the retouchings revealed are not extensive. Offered in a gilt wood and plaster frame in good condition.
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This and the following two portraits were probably commissioned from López by the Duchesse de Berry, whose sister Luisa Carlota married the sitter in 1819, or were perhaps gifts from her sister to her. Both portraits are depicted in a watercolour by Louis Garneray of 1822 as hanging on either side of the fireplace in the Duchesse's rooms in the Pavilion de Marsan (see fig.1). That of their eldest daughter Isabella is shown reflected in the pier glass above the fireplace. All three works are recorded in an undated inventory of the Duchess's paintings.

The sitter was the youngest son of King Charles IV of Spain (1748-1819) and Queen Maria Luisa of Parma. He married his niece, Princess Luisa Carlota of Bourbon-Two Sicilies. Naples and Sicily (see following lot) on 12 June 1819 in Madrid. On his chest he wears the Grand Cross of Carlos III and the cross of a the military order of Santiago.

José Luis Díez lists two further autograph versions of this portrait, both of which he dates to around 1820. The first resides in the collection of the Museo Castillo de Peralada in Gerona and the second, unsigned replica is in a Private Collection in Cagliari (see J.L. Díez, Vincente López (1772-1850) Il catálogo razonado, Volumen II, Madrid 1999, pp. 97-98, nos. P-386 and P-387, reproduced plate 156).

We are grateful to Dr. José Luis Díez for endorsing the attribution to Vicente López on the basis of photographs.