Self-Portrait
1795. Oil on unlined canvas.Room 036
This Self-Portrait’s small size indicates that it was intended for private and intimate use, as a gift to someone of interest to Goya. It came from the heirs of Tomás de Berganza, a butler to the Duke and Duchess of Alba who continued in the Duchess’s service after the Duke’s death. This provenance fueled a mid-19th-century romantic legend about Goya’s involvement with the Duchess, as the work was thought to have been his gift to her. In fact, the only indication that this small portrait ever belonged to María Teresa de Siva is the Berganza family’s oral tradition, which considered it one of three works that she gave to her butler. The other two were The Duchess of Alba and La Beata (P07020) and La Beata and the children, Luis de Berganza and María de la Luz (private collection), both of which date from around 1795. The present Self-Portrait must have been painted around the same time, or slightly later, as is indicated by the artist’s clothing and short, loose, unpowdered hair.
Goya depicts himself in front of a greenish-gray background that is significantly more luminous around his figure, as if it shined with a light derived from his work. In his case, this is particularly interesting, as he used it as a metaphor for his ideas about knowledge and progress -very much in keeping with the Enlightenment. The artist is elegantly dressed and sits on a discrete, refined armchair with a gilded frame and red velvet upholstery that also appears in the portraits he painted in that period. The canvas in front of him rests on an easel that is outside the picture. This would seem to indicate that he is painting the portrait of someone seated where the viewer stands, as he looks directly out of the composition with his characteristically direct and profound gaze, seizing both the outer and inner, psychological aspects of his model. The artist’s features, as well as his tousled hair, closely resemble those on a drawing from the same period: his Self-Portrait with the Medallion (The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York). His hair is equally tousled in both works, reflecting the movement of his inspiration. According to Cesare Ripa’s Iconologia (first edition, 1593), this has been a symbol of creative genius since the Renaissance (Text drawn from Mena Marqués, M.: Goya: luces y sombras, 2012, p. 76).
