Bildnis des Don Ramón Satué

Goya signed this relaxed portrait of a Madrid judge, Ramon Satue, in 1823, hands in his pockets, shirt open at the neck. But the panel hides an earlier picture. X-rays have found, beneath Satue, a different man entirely, a senior French officer in a braided uniform hung with medals, probably painted around 1810 during Napoleon's occupation of Spain. 1823 was a dangerous year to own such a thing. The French had long gone, the liberal experiment Goya had backed was being crushed, and King Ferdinand VII was restoring hard absolutist rule. A portrait of a Napoleonic general could get a man denounced, so the old image was painted over and a harmless judge took its place. Within a year Goya left Spain for good and settled in Bordeaux.