- Cronología
- Ca. 1783
- Dimensiones
- 84 x 62 cm
- Técnica y soporte
- Oil on canvas
- Reconocimiento de la autoría de Goya
- Documented work
- Titular
- Private collection
- Ficha: realización/revisión
- 24 Jan 2010 / 15 Jun 2023
- Inventario
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This portrait was made to thanks the Bank of San Carlos pictures entrusted and in commemoration of the institution offical appoinment in 1783.
Juan Agustín Cean Bermúdez (Gijón, 1749 - Madrid, 1829) was a painter, historian and art critic. He also had a career in government as First Official of the Secretariat at the Banco Nacional de San Carlos (Spain's national central bank). He was a friend of Gaspar Melchor de Jovellanos, and worked for a time at the General Archives of the Indies in Seville. He travelled throughout Spain, and was the author of the Diccionario histórico de los más ilustres profesores de Bellas Artes en España (Historical Dictionary of the Most Illustrious Professors of Arts in Spain), published in 1800 by the San Fernando Royal Academy of Fine Arts. In 1814 he published a biography of Jovellanos, a work fundamental to a knowledge of this figure. Goya went on to produce other portraits of his friend and advisor: an oil painting and drawing. The present work may have been painted when Bermúdez was named First Official of the Banco Nacional de San Carlos.
He is depicted standing against a dark background dressed in a dark frock coat and waistcoat and carrying a pencil in his left hand.
It is a simple portrait, without the solemnity which marks other portrayals by Goya of prominent figures of the age: in this case, the sitter is characterized by his kind, affable expression.
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Pinturas de GoyaMuseo Nacional del PradoMadrid1928consultant editor Fernando Álvarez de Sotomayor. From April to May 1928cat. 6
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Francisco de Goya. IV Centenario de la capitalidadorganized by Ayuntamiento de Madrid and Dirección General de Bellas Artes at the Casón del Buen RetiroMadrid1961consultant editor Valentín de SambricioLXXIX
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Goya, su tiempo, su vida, sus obrasMadridTipografía de Manuel G. Hernández, Impresor de la Real Casa1887p. 240, cat. LXXI
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Goya, pintor de retratos, t. IMadridBlass y Cía1916p. 173, nº 89
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Vie et ouvre de Francisco de GoyaParísOffice du livre1970p. 94, cat. 222
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BarcelonaPolígrafa1970vol. I, p. 263, cat. 172
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Francisco de Goya, 4 vols.ZaragozaCaja de Ahorros de Zaragoza, Aragón y Rioja1980-1982vol.I, pp. 150 y 265 (il.)
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Jovellanos aficionado y coleccionistaGijón1994pp. 88-89