Portrait of the Infante Carlos María Isidro of Spain

In the spring of 1800, newly named first court painter to the king, Goya set up at the royal palace at Aranjuez to prepare his great group portrait of the family of Charles the Fourth. He painted each figure first as a separate study from life, and this is one of them: the boy Carlos Maria Isidro, a younger son of the king, about 12 years old, wearing his sashes and orders. In the finished group he stands half-hidden in the back row. Painted quickly and directly, the sketch feels more alive than his place in the crowd. Three decades later this same prince would claim the throne, and the wars fought in his name would tear Spain apart for years.