Portrait de Philippe IV à Fraga

In June 1644 Velazquez set up in a rough, poorly lit room in the small Aragonese town of Fraga, close to the front line. Philip IV had brought his court on campaign against the French, and after the Spanish retook the fortress of Lerida the king sat, over three sessions, for this portrait. He wears the silver and rose costume of the campaign, its red and gold nodding to the colours of Aragon, painted with the loose, glancing brushwork Velazquez had grown into. The finished picture was rushed to Madrid ahead of the king and set up in a church for a Mass of thanksgiving, standing in for the absent Philip as though he were there in person. Henry Clay Frick later bought it, and it is said to have been his favourite painting in his New York house.