Retrato de Francisco Cabarrús, vizconde de Rambouillet y I conde de Cabarrús [Portrait of Francisco Cabarrús, Viscount of Rambouillet and 1st Count of Cabarrús]
- c. 1798
- Oil on canvas
- 198 x 119 cm
- Cat. P_809
- Acquired in 2018
Francisco Cabarrús was admired by his contemporaries for his intelligence, his lively, fertile imagination, his cultivated air and his easy eloquence. He used these traits to set up businesses and implement reforms which have led him to be considered as the most radical of Spain's Enlightenment-influenced progressives. He specialised in treasury and financial affairs, which he approached essentially from the viewpoint of economic liberalism. He concerned himself actively with the development of the country, especially as regards agriculture, though he also expressed opinions on the church, on teaching, on divorce and on prostitution (see Ovidio García Regueiro: Francisco Cabarrús: un personaje y su época. Madrid, Centro de Estudios Políticos y Constitucionales, 2003, pp. 17-24; and Jean-Louis Guereña: La prostitución en la España contemporánea. Madrid: Marcial Pons Historia, 2003, p. 41).
This portrait by Agustín Esteve is intended precisely as a compendium of Cabarrús’s political and economic thinking and of his achievements up to that time. He is shown seated at a desk on which there are numerous books and documents, as if he had been caught unawares while working. This type of pose is common in official portraits from the 18th and 19th centuries. Two of the books on the desk recall his role as a founder of the Banco Nacional de San Carlos (1782) and the Real Compañía de Filipinas (1785), and the one entitled 'Exposición al Consejo' ['Exposition to the Board'] may be a reference to his Discurso sobre la libertad de comercio concedida por S.M. a la América meridional ['Speech on the freedom of trade granted by His Majesty to southern America'], which he read in 1778 at a meeting of Madrid's Royal Economic Society of Friends of the Country, of which he had been a member for two years at that point. This speech supported the colonial trade policy proposed by Pedro Rodríguez de Campomanes, General Attorney of the Council of Castile. There may also be a reference to his support for this line of thinking on the part of his former protector in the book shown upturned on the desk, on which what the fragments 'pedro / rega' can be read. This may be an allusion to Tratado sobre la Regalía de Amortización ['Treatise on the Royal Prerogative of Amortisation'] (1765). On the book lie bundles of documents that allude to his ideas on increasing the useful population of Spain and about the construction of the Uceda Canal (1775-79), also known as the 'Cabarrús Canal', with which he sought to increase the efficacy of the irrigation systems in the area. He also provided support —and funding from the Banco de San Carlos— for an ambitious project to open up a canal in Guadarrama to provide a navigable waterway from Madrid to the Atlantic by connecting the Guadarrama, Manzanares, Tagus and Guadalquivir rivers (1785-89). This project was never completed, but it is shown on the map on which Cabarrús is resting his arm in the painting, and perhaps also hinted at in the view from the window. The paper in his right hand is the notification of his appointments as the representative of the Spanish government in the peace talks in Lille and as ambassador in Paris (1797). Finally, his appointment as Councillor of State on 30 October that year is alluded to in the eye motifs on the uniform that he is wearing. These refer to the mythological figure of Argos, the ever-alert guardian, symbolising the traits required in such Councillors. The sash that completes the embroidery at the end of his coat shows alternating figures of lions, castles and fleurs-de-lys, identifying the uniform as the model approved in July 1797 (see General Palace Archives, General Administration, docket 980-2 & drawings, 4906).
However there is no mention of the titles of nobility granted to him as Viscount of Rambouillet (in 1789) and Count of Cabarrús (in 1790), perhaps because the idea of the nobility clashed with his ideals, and especially with his criticism of traditionalism and the role of the aristocracy at court. This omission was 'corrected' by his descendants, who had a frame made for the portrait which was emblazoned with the family coat of arms, bearing the motto fides publica. This is the same motto used by the Banco de San Carlos on its banknotes. Charles IV authorised him to use it on his coat of arms when Cabarrús was rehabilitated after being imprisoned on an accusation of embezzlement. However the frame changes the original intended message of the portrait.
These factors point to 1798 as the date of the portrait, as suggested by Soria. There is nothing to indicate that this is one of the two portraits of Francisco Cabarrús that his son Domingo commissioned from Esteve between 1808 and 1810, unless the uniform shown is taken as reflecting his appointment as Treasury Minister in July 1808 by Joseph I. If that is the case then it is odd that the portrait contains no reference to Cabarrus' activities after 1798 but does allude to affairs dating back as far as 1760.
The portrait was owned by Cabarrus' descendants until its recent sale, and for some time was believed to be by Goya. However it most certainly matches the style of Esteve. Goya's portraits tended to be more introspective, while Esteve gave particular prominence to items that indicated the status and achievements of the sitter. The likeness of the 46-year-old Cabarrús is good, however, and the expression of his eyes and the turn of his mouth show his characteristically vivacious, decisive nature. By contrast, the strange placement of his left hand on his leg is hard to explain. There is now no way of finding out whether Cabarrús had some disability in his left hand, so it may just be an incomprehensible anatomical error on the part of the artist. As in other paintings from the same period, Esteve uses very little material and leaves his preparatory work in plain sight at numerous points. The effect is especially subtle in the landscape.
Cabarrús was a noted dignitary in the reigns of Charles III and Charles IV. He was a specialist who wrote on matters of economic policy as part of the second generation of the Enlightenment in Spain. He also designed financial projects, and as such created the bonds known as vales reales in 1780, during the war with Britain, and founded the Banco Nacional de San Carlos, the first bank authorised to issue bank-notes in Spain. In 1790 he fell out of political and social favour. He was later rehabilitated by prime minister Godoy after several years of serious problems which were never fully clarified, but which included trial and imprisonment.
He was born in Bayonne in 1752, to a family of traders and seafarers that hailed originally from Navarre. In 1771 he travelled to Valencia to learn about trade in Spain at the firm of Antonio Galavert. Shortly afterwards he secretly married Galavert's fourteen-year-old daughter Maria Antonia, a match opposed by both their families. They had a daughter named Teresa and two sons.
In 1772 he moved to Carabanchel de Arriba, a village near Madrid, where Pierre Galavert, a relative of his wife's, owned a soap factory. Records of bills of trade and permits for the export of silver coins show that in 1775 he was doing business with the firm of Viuda de Lalanne e Hijos. He went into partnership with Jean Aguirre, a trader in wool and treasurer of the Canal Imperial de Aragón. The transactions that they did together included the exporting of wool to France and Britain. He also worked with Le Couteulx, one of the biggest firms engaged in trade between Cadiz, Rouen and París.
His growing prosperity as a trader and banker brought him into contact with the followers of the Enlightenment and thus into the main circles of power. He joined the Economic Society of Madrid in 1776. At its informal meetings, held at the home of Pedro Rodríguez de Campomanes, he met Jovellanos, with whom he struck up a friendship that lasted until the time of the Peninsular War. Cabarrús was much more highly educated than was usual among the traders and bankers of the time. He strove to rise above the world of commerce and join ideological and political elite.
In 1779 Spain and France went to war with Britain over the American War of Independence. The government soon found itself in need of funds to pay for the war, as a British naval blockade had reduced remittances from the Indies and the amount of cash in circulation in Spain had fallen sharply. Cabarrús came up with the idea of vales reales: a hybrid between government bonds and paper money. He convinced the Count of Gausa, who was Treasury Minister at the time, to issue these bonds for three purposes: to bring in revenue for the treasury, to serve as a means of payment for the public (in large-scale operations at least) and to provide their owners with interest at an attractive rate of 4% per annum. There were three issues during the reign of Charles III: in 1780, 1781 and 1782. With his initiative and powers of conviction, Cabarrús managed to persuade some major players to involve themselves in the operation: mostly French trading houses operating in Madrid and Cadiz.
Uncertainty concerning the outcome of the war led to a drop in the traded value of vales reales towards the end of 1782. The Banco Nacional de San Carlos was founded in June that same year. It was the result of the personal efforts of Cabarrús to set up an official lender in the form of a joint-stock company. Its functions included the issuing of bank-notes, the prepayment of funds to the state (mainly concerned with the administration of provisions for the army), the provision of credit to cover the expenses of the monarchy abroad and the discounting and negotiating of bills with private individuals. A further objective was the funding of public works projects, but the main purpose was to pay for vales reales in silver. In 1784 the Banco de San de Carlos was granted a monopoly on silver mining, which brought substantial profits. In 1785 it obtained the contract to create the Compañía de Filipinas, in which it made a major investment. Both these projects went against the policy of economic liberalism that Cabarrús advocated. Between 1780 and 1790 Cabarrús became one of the most socially and economically influential individuals in Madrid outside the circles of Spain's grandees, but he also began to become unpopular. Various factors came together to undermine his success.
Following the death of Charles III in 1789, treasury minister Lerena, a personal enemy of Cabarrús, urged the bank's shareholders to convene an extraordinary general meeting to examine the latter’s record in managing its affairs. Cabarrús and the other directors of the bank were dismissed and shortly afterwards he was jailed for a cash smuggling offence allegedly committed back in the days of his youth.
With the accession of Charles IV to the throne and the upsets caused by the French Revolution, the political circumstances had changed. Opponents of the enlightenment-based policies in place saw this as an opportunity. Cabarrús lost support at court and his prosecution under civil jurisdiction went ahead. He spent five years in prison without ever coming to trial. In 1795 he was released and reinstated as a director by right of the Banco Nacional de San Carlos, when senior judges found procedural defects in the case against him and new treasury minister Diego de Gardoqui withdrew the charges. At the same time the war with the French National Convention came to an end and Prime Minister Godoy introduced a more pro-enlightenment domestic policy.
Godoy fell temoporarily out of favour, but when he recovered power (with the support of Spain's most reactionary party) he dismissed and jailed pro-enlightenment minsters, and Cabarrús was sent into internal exile in Burgos. From 1801 to 1807 he lived in Barcelona, where he undertook a number of industrial projects. On the outbreak of the popular uprising against the French in 1808 he met with Jovellanos in Zaragoza. Cabarrús declared his support for the 'legitimist' cause, but a few days later he was attacked by a group of insurrectionists because of his French birth and his known anti-traditionalist sympathies. This seems to have led him to change his position and join the cause of Joseph Bonaparte, who appointed him treasury minister in July that year. He still held that post when he died in Seville in 1810.
Extract from: P. Tedde de Lorca: Diccionario biográfico español, Madrid: Real Academia de la Historia, 2009-2013.
Other works by Agustín Esteve y Marqués