Ferdinand VII as a Boy
1792 - 1793. Oil on canvas.On display elsewhere
This work depicts Ferdinand VII as a boy of about eight or nine years of age. He is wearing a blue suit with a red sash decorated with the Golden Fleece and the insignia of the Order of Charles III. More specifically, he is wearing the great cross and the new sash with three equal lines which was established in June 1792.
In the 1814 inventory of Palacio Real, the painting is attributed to Antonio Carnicero (1748–1814) as well as to Joaquín Inza (1736–1811) at the time when the painting was transferred to Museo del Prado in 1847. Arturo Ansón Navarro (2012) attributed the portrait to Ramón Bayeu for stylistic reasons and for its documentary relationship with a series of portraits of the royal family painted by Bayeu around 1791.
According to these documents, Ramón Bayeu, who had been appointed chamber painter on 20 April 1791, painted a series of portraits of the children of Charles IV and Queen María Luisa at the Royal Site of Aranjuez in that year. Six of the kings´ children were alive at the time, one of whom, Infanta Carlota Joaquina (1775–1830), Queen of Portugal from 1785, had already left the Spanish court. The others were the Infantas Maria Amalia (1779–1798) and Maria Luisa (1782–1824), Prince Ferdinand (1784–1833), the Infante Carlos Maria Isidro (1788–1855) and Infanta Maria Isabel (1789–1848).
Livinio Stuyck, director of the Real Fábrica de Tapices [Royal Tapestry Factory], referred to some of these portraits in a memorial addressed to Charles IV on 13 April 1791, in which he complained about the shortage of tapestry cartoons and of Ramón Bayeu´s inactivity in this work. Moreover, he reported that Bayeu excused himself ‘because he was busy with the portraits of the Sereníssimas Señoras Infantas’, as well as the painting of the altar of the Escuelas Pías de Lavapiés (Ansón Navarro 2012, p. 181).
In a letter to the Count of Lerena in the first half of May 1791, Francisco Bayeu asked him to mediate so that the king would increase his brother Ramón´s salary. As a marked commendation, he explicitly mentioned that ‘Their Majesties saw the portraits my brother has painted and liked them very much. Then, they commissioned him to paint the other portraits of the Royal Family’ (Ansón Navarro 2012, p. 181). On 22 July 1791, Ramón Bayeu was appointed effective chamber painter and his salary increased from 15,000 to 20,000 reales de vellón.
Finally, ‘the portraits of the royalty’ are recorded in an invoice issued by Ramón Bayeu on 30 June 1791 for the ‘expenses of colours, the payment of the miller and others incurred during the Aranjuez journey of the year 1791’ (Archivo General de Palacio, Reigns, Carlos IV, Casa, leg. 50, exp. 1).
From these documents it can be deduced that Ramón Bayeu first portrayed the Infantas María Amalia (P006146) and Maria Luisa (Patrimonio Nacional). Then, once he had received the approval of the king and queen, he portrayed ‘the rest of the royalty’, including the Infante Carlos Maria Isidro (P004719), the Infanta Maria Isabel (P004718) and Prince Ferdinand. The portrait can be dated to June 1792 and early 1793 because of the design of the sash of the Order of Charles III worn by Prince Ferdinand in his portrait, and Ramón Bayeu’s date of death on 1 March 1793.
