AGUSTIN ESTEVE Valencia (1753 / 1820) "Portrait of a child"

Oil on canvas. Provenance: Collection of the Dukes of Medina de las Torres. Bibliography: Martin S. Soria, “Agustin Esteve and Goya”, Alfonso the Magnanimous Institution, Valencia, 1957, p. 105, cat. no. 56. Reference bibliography: Spanish Society of Friends of Art, “Exhibition of Child Portraits in Spain. Illustrated General Catalogue”, Madrid, 1925, pp. 74-75, cat. no. 39, plate XXXIV . Agustin Esteve, a disciple of Goya, was one of the great portraitists of the Spanish nobility in the last decades of the 18th century and the first two decades of the 19th century. His output includes numerous portraits of children who, over the years, would go on to inherit the great noble titles of their parents. In the work presented here, Esteve perfectly conveys the characteristics of childhood, highlighting the model's energy and ease, along with the candor and innocence conveyed by his gaze. Surrounded by toys and musical instruments, he is depicted in a palatial domestic interior, on a cushion with a curtain in the background. We base our attribution to the painter on a comparison with another work of his that repeats exactly the same composition, although in this one the curtain is located on the opposite side, which could indicate a shared provenance or that they may have formed a pair. This painting represents a "Boy of the Ducal House of Medinaceli," although he has also been identified on occasion as Antonio Gonzalez de Cordoba y Ponce de Leon, ninth son of the Dukes of Medinaceli (see 1925 exhibition, plate XX14th century ). From the collection of the Duke of Medina de las Torres (the reverse bears the old label of provenance from the Board of Seizure, Protection and Salvage of Artistic Treasures), we can confirm that it was not part of the collection of Vicente Pio Osorio de Moscoso y Ponce de Leon, Marquis of Astorga, who owned a large number of works (mostly family portraits) by Agustin Esteve. It must have entered the collection at a later date, perhaps during the marriage of Eulalia Osorio de Moscoso y Carvajal, Duchess of Medina de las Torres and Marchioness of Monasterio, and Fernando Osorio de Moscoso y Fernandez de Cordoba. The latter held the title, motu proprio, of Duke of Terranova. Dimensions: 96 x 74 cm.