Juana Galarza de Goicoechea

This is painted on a copper plate small enough to sit in a palm. In 1805 Goya's son Javier married Gumersinda Goicoechea, whose family were merchants of Navarrese origin in Madrid, and for the occasion the painter made seven miniatures of the couple and their relatives. Juana Galarza was the bride's mother. She appears from the chest up, almost facing us, in a white lace dress with a cap to match. He built these the way he built a full-size canvas, over a reddish ground that shows through between the strokes, and the small format did not soften the character study. Goya was 59 and first painter to the king. When he died in Bordeaux in 1828 he was buried in the vault of Juana's husband, who had died in that city a few years earlier.