Bildnis des Martín Zapater

By 1790 Goya had just been made a painter to the king in Madrid, and Martín Zapater, the man in the blue silk coat here, was a prosperous merchant back in their home town of Zaragoza. The two had known each other since they were boys, and for 25 years they wrote to each other constantly. More than 140 of those letters survive, and they are much of what we know about Goya as a person. That is why the sheet of paper Zapater holds is not just a prop. Goya inscribed it like one of their letters: "My friend Martín Zapater, with the greatest effort I have made you this portrait." He signed and dated it 1790, the way he would close a letter home.