The full-length standing figure of the Duke of Osuna (1810-1844) is shown posing in a smart black English-style suit with a striped waistcoat. Over his shoulders is a sumptuous greatcoat lined with sable. The most striking thing about the portrait is the aristocrat’s self-assured pose, with a gesture that blends elegance, distinction and a certain extravagance, and a distant expression that shows the sitter to be a true dandy. Such evident poise, underscored by the left hand on his hip while the other holds his top hat, his yellow suede gloves and his cane, emphasises his consciousness of his own image, described by Gállego as “distinguished and grave, aloof without presumption”. The figure is outlined against a large brown curtain drawn back to reveal the fabulous Gothic architecture of the Palace of El Infantado in Guadalajara, which belonged to the sitter. Preserved at the Museo del Prado is at least one fragment of a sketch for this portrait, where Madrazo is seen originally to have planned the figure with less surrounding space, rectifying this in the final painting by reducing the figure’s scale. On the reverse, he made a detailed sketch of the sinuous carved decoration of the inner court of the palace, of whose details he also made further drawings [Museo del Prado, D7109, D7205 and D7108] which demonstrate the care the artist put into this work. At the same time, the contrast with the old palatial courtyard in Guadalajara sets off the cosmopolitan elegance exemplified by the model.

The aristocrat was one of the leading lights of high society under Isabella II. A bachelor, speculation on his private life was rife, turning him and his versatile personality, with his special interest in the fine arts, into a centre of courtly attention. This made his aura still more attractive and brought him enormous popularity. He possessed the titles of the noble houses of Osuna, Benavente and Infantado, making him the owner of the largest conglomerate of lordships and estates at that time – thirteen duchies, thirteen counties, twelve marquisates and one viscounty, as well as numerous other added honours. He occupied many positions at court and had experience of politics, revealing himself to be a conservative. He devoted himself to the administration of his vast patrimony, divided between southern Spain and Belgium. A patron of artists, he cultivated singing and music and also championed a sport that was then emerging in Spain, horse riding, organising the country’s first horse races in the Alameda de Osuna, a park which he modernised and embellished. Still a bachelor, the duke died of a stroke the very year that Madrazo painted his portrait. He was succeeded by his brother Mariano (1814-1882), a politician and diplomat noted for his spendthrift lifestyle who eventually squandered the family’s entire patrimony.

Without any doubt, the portrait at Banco de España is one of Federico de Madrazo’s masterpieces, and there are those who regard it as the foremost male portrait of Spanish Romanticism. Placed on public display the year it was painted, Eugenio de Ochoa drew early attention to the idealised likeness achieved in this work by Madrazo: “Most of all, who can forget that extremely beautiful portrait of the illfated Duke of Osuna, so marvellously convincing that, for a moment, we were able to believe that death had released its prey? It was him, with his gentlemanly bearing, his aristocratic gravity, and his dashing, handsome presence. Those who never knew him admired that painting’s truth, presence and grace; and those who had known him believed they were seeing him anew, filled with life. And more than once we saw his closest friends stand immobile and saddened before that portrait, unable to turn their tearful eyes away.”

Carlos González Navarro

The inscriptions below the balustrade indicate that this portrait is of Pedro Téllez-Girón, 11th Duke of Osuna, and that it was painted by Federico de Madrazo in 1844. This is not the only painting that Madrazo signed using capital letters: indeed, the signature here is very similar to that on his famous portrait of the Countess of Vilches, painted in 1853, which hangs in the Museo del Prado in Madrid. The closeness of the two inscriptions and the similarity of their lettering are striking, as is their prominence in the composition. The artist clearly wished to leave no doubt as to who he was. He was probably also hinting at a certain familiarity with the sitter, and perhaps underscoring his awareness of the worth and importance of the portrait. The lettering identifying the sitter (and perhaps indeed both inscriptions) may have been added after the painting was completed, as the duke died on 28 August, just a few months after sitting for Madrazo. Such texts were often added when the subject was dead and the picture no longer belonged to them. His death is probably also the reason why the artist's inventory of his own work included a note indicating that he had painted copies of the head from this portrait in 1845 for the Marquis of Miraflores and the Marquis of Santa Cruz. That inventory also refers to the work now held by the Banco de España as a 'full-length portrait of the Duke of Osuna in a greatcoat lined with marten fur'. He recorded having been paid 16,000 reales for it, the highest sum up to that date on the list, which ran from his return to Madrid in 1842.

At the time of his death, the Duke of Osuna was 33 years old, and was one of the leading lights of Madrid society. This was partly due to the prestige and financial might associated with his family, which was one of the most important of the Spanish aristocracy. But it was also due in part to his own merits, to his good looks and to the fact that he carried on the family tradition of patronage of art and culture. That tradition had been strong in the time of Goya and had continued with the recent appointment of his uncle the Prince of Anglona as Director of the Museo Liberal during the period known as the "Liberal Triennium". At court, the Duke of Osuna was a gentleman-in-waiting.

Federico de Madrazo was four years younger than the duke. They already knew each other when this portrait was painted. This is evidenced by an early equestrian portrait dated 1836 and by a letter from Federico Madrazo to his father José in which he recounts a visit to the studio of an artist in Paris accompanied by the Duke of Osuna, among others. The painting at the bank shows an expressiveness and a mise-en-scène that denote a degree of familiarity, complicity and empathy.

It is one of the works that best define the aesthetics and ideals of Spanish Romanticism. The duke is dressed in black, with narrow trousers and a short jacket that stylises his figure. He is shown in a very elegant pose, well able (as a man of the world) to hold his white gloves, top hat and cane in one hand, and with his left arm bent so that his fist rests on his waist. This position of his arm gives the figure flexibility and at the same time shows off the drape of the greatcoat lined with marten fur mentioned in Mazdrazo's description. The coat suggests that the picture was painted in the early months of 1844. It plays a major role in the composition, offsetting the dark curtain against which the duke is posing.

Osuna's fine figure and elegant clothing are offset by his clear, finely drawn facial features, his broad, high forehead and a frank, trusting look that conveys security and distinction. His hair is arranged carefully to enhance these features.

Federico de Madrazo trained in traditional French portrait art, especially as practised by Jean-Auguste-Dominique Ingres, and this work shows how carefully he learned from that tradition and how skilfully he created compositional forms suited to more modern times and to the ideas of his audience. The duke's pose makes the most of his clothing to create an elegant, attractive image. The layout of the painting enhances this impression. At that time Madrazo used a highly precise style, as a result of which every single object in the painting is clearly individualised. This is all the more true when, as in this case, the work in question uses only a limited range of colours. In this sense, the painting brilliantly combines blacks, greys and browns to create an elegant, measured palette that not only recalls the tradition of French Romantic portait art but also evokes the portraits of Velázquez's 'grey period' in the 1620s. That evocation may well be deliberate, as Velázquez was a benchmark for Federico de Madrazo's identity as an artist.

The work contains highly precise historical and artistic references: for instance the upper floor of the courtyard of the Infantado Palace in Guadalajara is perfectly recognisable. One of Osuna's many titles was 'Duke of Infantado', so this can be seen as an allusion to his noble lineage. This idea is reinforced by the fact that there is a coat of arms in the background. We do not know whether Madrazo visited Guadalajara to paint the courtyard or (as seems much more likely) based his depiction on the magnificent print in the first volume of España artística y monumental by Pérez Villaamil, published in 1842.

This is not just a snapshot of the location but a carefully prepared mise-en-scène, as shown by the curtain behind the sitter, which suggests that Madrazo produced a rhetorical setting based on a portrait painted from life in his studio. Showing the entire courtyard would have posed problems in terms of form and colours in the links between the sitter and the background, so the artist opted for a curtain so that his subject stood out against a relatively homogeneous background that actually helped to integrate him rather than interfering.

The Infantado Palace is well-known as an architectural masterpiece of the late Middle Ages in Spain. The idea of using it as a setting for Osuna may well be not just an allusion to his lineage but also a nod to an educated man who, through this location with its Gothic-style atmosphere, had the same aesthetic, historical and ethical precepts as many of his culturally inquisitive contemporaries. One of those contemporaries was Federico de Madrazo himself, who founded the journal El Artista along with Eugenio de Ochoa in 1835. The cover of this journal features a Gothic arch. Ochoa wrote one of the earliest, most heartfelt pieces in praise of the portrait: 'Who does not recall above all that very beautiful portrait of the ill-fated Duke of Osuna, which was so wonderful that for a moment we could almost believe that death had relinquished its prey? It was truly him, with his noble bearing, his aristocratic seriousness, his gallantry and his handsome presence. Those who knew him not in life admired the truthfulness, standing and grace of that portrait; those who did know him believed they saw him alive once more'.

For the personality and background of the sitter, for the expressive features, for the elegance, the links with contemporary French portrait art and with the works of Velázquez, and for its revindication of the Medieval world, the portrait of the Duke of Osuna is one of the most iconic works of Spanish Romanticism. The work was acquired by the Banco de España in 1984 from the Zayas Collection.

Javier Portús