Portrait du marquis de San Adrián

Goya painted this tall portrait in 1804, near the end of his years as first painter to the Spanish crown and not long before the war with Napoleon would darken everything he did. His sitter is José María Magallón, the Marquis of San Adrián, shown at around 41, and Goya clearly enjoyed him. The Marquis leans against a stone fountain basin, one leg crossed over the other, a switch in his gloved hand, dressed in the height of fashion with a tall hat and tight breeches. Behind him the ground falls away into a dim, bruised twilight, and against that dusk his pale, elegant figure stands out sharply.