Two portraits painted by Francisco de Goya in 1805 have been sold at auction in New York for $16.4 million, the record price paid at auction for a work by the artist, Christie’s auction house has announced.
The two paintings are ‘Portrait of Doña María Vicenta Barruso Valdés’, seated on a sofa with a lapdog; and ‘Portrait of his mother Doña Leonora Antonia Valdés de Barruso’, seated on a chair holding a fan. Both portraits were dated and signed by Goya in the lower right corner. They also include inscriptions with the names of the sitters.
According to the auction house, the portraits belong to a private collection. The paintings passed through several important collectors (among others, Stanislas Orossen, around 1925) and were acquired in 1951 by the family of the current owner.
Both were commissioned in 1805 by Salvador Anselmo Barruso de Ybaretta, husband of Doña Leonora and father of María Vicenta Barruso Valdés. These portraits were exhibited at the Prado Museum in 2008 in the exhibition ‘Goya in times of war’.
