Porträt des Luis María de Cistué Martínez

An inscription on the canvas gives the sitter's age as two years and eight months, which is how the picture can be dated so exactly to 1791. He is Luis María de Cistué, a Madrid child from a well-connected family, painted by Goya in a deep midnight-blue suit that earned the portrait its Spanish nickname, el niño azul, the blue boy. Goya was then the fashionable portraitist of the Spanish court, and he gives the toddler an oddly grave composure. The life ahead of the boy was anything but calm. He grew up to fight in the war against Napoleon's occupation, rising to field marshal beside Palafox, the defender of Zaragoza. The painting stayed in private hands until the couturier Pierre Bergé gave it to the Louvre in 2009.