Francisco Bayeu

The sitter is Francisco Bayeu, court painter and head of the Madrid academy — and Goya's brother-in-law, a man who had helped launch his career and quarrelled with him for years over Goya's refusal to take instruction. Bayeu died in the summer of 1795, and his daughter commissioned this posthumous portrait for the academy, based on a self-portrait Bayeu had made. Goya paints him seated with a brush in hand, the tool of his trade, his face drawn and tired from the heart trouble of his final days. The whole thing is keyed to cool silver-greys and greens, with the highlights on the face and the hand doing most of the work.