Portrait of King Charles IV

Goya once described an audience with Charles IV in a letter to his friend Martín Zapater. The king asked warmly after his son's health, then picked up his violin and said nothing further. Something of that mildness is in this picture. He stands in blue court dress embroidered with silver, the Golden Fleece at his throat and three sashes across him, Spanish, Neapolitan and French, with the crown and the ermine mantle laid on a table at his right. As the newly appointed painter to the king, Goya had to supply official likenesses of the new monarchs to institutions all over Spain. The royal couple sat for a few studies from life, which stayed in the workshop, and versions were built from those. The Prado lists this canvas as a copy and points to the hand of Agustín Esteve, Goya's closest assistant.