Anton Raphael Mengs

Recorded in a posthumous inventory of the artist's studio where it was valued at 100 scudi (see inscription upper left);
Anonymous sale, London, Christie's, 21 April 1989, lot 108;
There acquired by the present owner. 

Padua, Palazzo Zabarella, Mengs, la scoperta del Neoclassico, 3 March-11 June 2001, no. 93. 

J.N. de Azara, "Lisa de las pinturas de Mengs," in Obras de D. Antonio Rafael Mengs, Madrid 1780, p. xlvii;
J.N. de Azara, "Elenco delle opere...," in Opere di Antonio Raffaelo Mengs, Rome 1787, p. xliii;
J. Jorán de Urríes y de la Colina, Goya y el Infante Done Luis de Borbón. Homenaje a la "Infanta" Dona María Teresa de Vallabriga, exhibition catalogue, Saragossa 1996, pp. 89-110;
R. Kasl, Painting in Spain in the Age of the Enlightenment: Goya and His Contemporaries, exhibition catalogue, Indianapolis 1996, under no. 42, notes 17, 18, reproduced, p. 283, fig. 1;
S. Roettgen, Anton Raphael Mengs, 1728-1779, vol. I, Munich 1999, p. 214, cat. no. 143, p. 213, under cat. no. 142,  vol. II, pp. 326, 356, reproduced. 

The following condition report has been provided by Simon Parkes of Simon Parkes Art Conservation, Inc. 502 East 74th St. New York, NY 212-734-3920, simonparkes@msn.com, an independent restorer who is not an employee of Sotheby's. This work has been fairly recently restored. The work could be hung in its current condition if the varnish were slightly freshened. The canvas has what appears to be an Italian pasta lining, which is nicely presenting the surface. While the impasto might be slightly subdued because of successive linings, this is not the most heavily painted picture, and the lining seems to be perfectly appropriate. The condition is otherwise very good. There are only a couple isolated spots of retouching in the face and left hand. The remnants of the inscription in the upper left would not have been applied by the artist, and have weakened over time.
"This lot is offered for sale subject to Sotheby's Conditions of Business, which are available on request and printed in Sotheby's sale catalogues. The independent reports contained in this document are provided for prospective bidders' information only and without warranty by Sotheby's or the Seller."

Mengs executed this extremely refined and impressive portrait of Infante Don Luis de Borbòn circa 1774-1777, a period coinciding with the artist's second sojourn in Madrid, during which time he worked as official painter to the Spanish court. In addition to the present picture, which was the formal state portrait of the Don Luis, Mengs executed another near identical version (Cleveland, Cleveland Museum of Art) which hung in the Infante's palace near Madrid, the Boadilla del Monte. For years, that version was erroneously given to Goya, a student of Mengs at the Real Academia de Bellas Artes, and for whom the Infante was a major early patron.¹ In fact, the Cleveland version of the Infante's portrait hung next to Goya's portrait of Don Luis' wife María Teresa Vallabriga y Rozas (1758-1820) (Munich, Alte Pinakothek). 

Don Luis Jaime Antonio de Borbòn y Farnesio, Infante of Spain and Conde Cinchón was the youngest son of King Philip V of Spain and Isabella Farnese, princess of Parma. As the younger brother to Don Carlos (later Charles III), heir of the Spanish throne, Don Luis was forced to assume a role as a high ranking member of Spanish Church. At eight years of age he was ordained as the Archbishop of Toledo and Primate of Spain. Despite his role in the Church, Don Luis was predisposed towards a more adventurous life, often engaging in multiple sexual relationships. Such activities forced him to abandon his Church titles in 1776, thus allowing him to marry María Teresa Vallabriga, the eighteen-year-old daughter of a cavalry officer from Aragon. 

Throughout his adult life Don Luis was an avid supporter of the arts, and patronized a number of Madrid's best talents, including the musician Luigi Boccherini, architect Ventura Rodríguez, and most notably Francisco de Goya. Don Luis was Goya's first royal patron, and the artist's series of portraits of Don Luis' family painted circa 1783, including the great group Portrait of the Family of the Infante Don Luis now in Fondazione Magnani-Rocca, Corte di Mamiano, Parma, were among Goya's first important portraits as a young artist.² 

1. The Cleveland version was listed in the 1886 inventory of the Palacio de Boadilla as a work by Goya, where it was dated to 1783-1784 (see A.T. Lurie, European Paintings of the 16^th, 17^th, and 18^th Centuries [The Cleveland Museum of Art Catalogue of Paintings], vol. III, Cleveland 1982, pp. 486-489.
2. P. Gassier and J. Wilson, Goya, Life and Work, English edition, London and New York 1971, p. 94, cat. nos. 206-222.