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Notes
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This warm and intimate portrait suggests the friendship that existed between Goya and his sitter who moved in the same liberal, intellectual circles of enlightened men known as ‘ilustrados’. Melendez Valdes was eight years Goya’s junior. He may well have met the artist at Saragossa in 1790 when he was a judge there. The portrait was possibly painted in the late spring or summer of 1797, when Valdes was disappointed to not secure the post of Public Prosecutor in April that year. It would certainly explain the melancholic expression on his face. However, 1797 remained an important year for Valdes, since the publication of the first important collected editions of his poems came out in April, while he was appointed Prosecutor to the Municipal authorities in Madrid in October.
Title
Juan Antonio Meléndez Valdés (1774–1817)
Date
1797
Medium
oil on canvas
Measurements
H 73.3 x W 57.1 cm
Accession number
B.M.26
Acquisition method
bequeathed by the Founders, 1885
Work type
Painting
The Bowes Museum
Barnard Castle, County Durham DL12 8NP England
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