Luis Veldrof, main chamberlain and concierge of the Royal Palace
Ca. 1823. Oil on canvas.Room 062
This work is a more than half-length portrait. The subject wears the ostentatious dress uniform of his palace role, which consists of a navy-blue dress coat with red cuffs and waistcoat, richly embroidered in gold. He also wears a jabot, a sabre and a cocked hat, which he holds in his left arm. He is holding a key in his right hand, miming the unlocking of a door, as an attribute of his high office in the palace. In the buttonhole of his dress coat, he wears the Condecoración flor de lis (Décoration du Lys , France). Luis Veldrof was born in 1758 and entered the service of the Royal Household at a very young age. Thus, in 1783 he was already assistant to the Furniture Holder of the Royal Cloakroom of the Infantes. By Royal Decree of 1789, he was appointed a royal servant in the Prince of Asturias´s Cloakroom which brought him into contact with Ferdinand VII, whom he accompanied on his journey into exile in Bayonne. On the 23rd of October 1815, after the monarch´s return to Spain, he was appointed concierge of the Royal Palace and, on the 9th of March of the following year, he was awarded the uniform of this position. On the 21st of September 1816, he obtained the charge of chamberlain of the Royal Palace, with whose uniform and distinctive key López depicted him in this portrait. He was the Head of Upholstery, Furniture Storage and Lighting. At the age of sixty, he married María Ana Bertomeu y Buenrostro in a second marriage. By Royal Order of 14th of August 1820, he was awarded the honours of Quartermaster of the Army and, by another Royal Order of 9th of November 1834, he was retired, dying on the 22nd of January 1840. The figure of the chamberlain Luis Veldrof has a very special significance for the Museo del Prado. He was the official who signed the orders for the paintings that Vicente López himself chose from among the Royal Collections –which were distributed among the various palaces of the Crown– to become part of the collection of the Real Museo de Pinturas. Furthermore, this portrait is one of the most striking effigies of palace officials which Vicente López painted in those years, with its extraordinary virtuosity and technical refinement in the meticulous depiction of the decoration of the uniform. The almost obsessive realist fidelity shown by López in all his portraits is particularly evident here. It is noticeable in the different skin tone of Veldrof´s face, with a whiter complexion on the upper part of the forehead, as he is usually protected from the sun with a cocked hat.
Díez, J. L., Luis Veldrof, aposentador mayor y conserje del Real Palacio (h. 1823-1825). En Barón, J.: El retrato español en el Prado. De Goya a Sorolla, Madrid, Museo Nacional del Prado, 2007, p.76, n. 10
