Antonio Veián y Monteagudo

In 1782 a lawyer from the small Aragonese town of Tamarite de Litera reached the top of his profession: Antonio Veian was named to the Council and Chamber of Castile, one of the crown's highest courts. His old university in Huesca wanted his likeness, and the commission passed to a rising painter then in Madrid, Francisco Goya, not yet the king's man. Goya shows him full length in the black robes of his office, gathering the gown in one hand and holding out a petition in the other. He did the work in Madrid that October and charged 35 doubloons for it. The university hung the portrait; the museum in Huesca keeps it now.