Portrait of Isidoro Maiquez

Goya painted this around 1807, and within a year Spain would be at war with the France next door. The man in black is Isidoro Maiquez, the leading actor of the Spanish stage in his day. He had trained in Paris and brought a plainer, more natural way of speaking to Madrid's theatres, sweeping aside the old declaimed style. Goya gives him almost nothing to lean on. No costume, no scenery, just the dark coat, the turned head and that quick, appraising look an actor keeps for a room he is reading. Maiquez knew the painter well and sat for him more than once. His own story ended badly. After the war the restored king distrusted him, and he died in 1820 with his mind gone.