Die Gräfin von Casa Flores

The woman in this portrait was born in Mexico City into a Spanish-Mexican family and married into the Spanish diplomatic service, following her husband to the courts of Vienna, Saint Petersburg and Lisbon. The picture came to Sao Paulo with the great collection Assis Chateaubriand built for the museum in the 1940s and 50s, and it carries the name of Francisco Goya, court painter in Madrid in exactly these years, the 1790s. Whether it is truly his hand is disputed. Some scholars have argued firmly for Goya, others remain unconvinced, and the museum lists it cautiously as attributed. Look at the direct gaze and the loosely brushed lace and you can see why the name stuck, and why the argument continues.