Two portraits that Francisco de Goya painted in 1805 have sold at auction in New York for $16.4 million. This is the highest price ever paid at an auction for a work by the artist.
“Portrait of Doa Mara Vicenta Barruso Valdés,” which shows her sitting on a couch with a dog, and “Portrait of his mother Doa Leonora Antonia Valdés de Barruso,” which shows her sitting on a chair with a fan, are the two paintings.
In the bottom right corner of each portrait, Goya wrote the date and his name. They also have the names of the people who sat in them written on them.
The auction house says that the portraits are part of a private collection. The paintings were owned by several important collectors, including Stanislas Orossen around 1925 before the current owner’s family bought them in 1951.
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Salvador Anselmo Barruso de Ybaretta, the husband of Doa Leonora and the father of Mara Vicenta Barruso Valdés, paid for both of them in 1805. In 2008, a show called “Goya in times of war” at the Prado Museum showed these portraits.
Jessa Martin is the author of Nogmagazine, A professional in writing by day, and novelist by night, she received her bachelor of arts in film from Howard University and her master of arts in media studies from the New School. A Brooklyn native, she is a lover of naps, cookie dough, and beaches, currently residing in the borough she loves, most likely multitasking.