Don Pedro, Duque de Osuna

Don Pedro de Alcántara Téllez-Girón y Pacheco (1755–1807), ninth Duque de Osuna, was one of Spain’s wealthiest and most talented noblemen during the reigns of Charles III and Charles IV. An enthusiastic and enlightened patron of the arts and sciences, the Duke seems in this portrait to exhibit the responsive, keen-witted personality that made him a popular figure with the intelligentsia of his day. After the royal court, he and his wife were Goya’s most faithful patrons, commissioning more than twenty-four works including portraits, religious subjects, and a famous set of decorative canvases for their country palace outside Madrid.

Source: Art in The Frick Collection: Paintings, Sculpture, Decorative Arts, New York: Harry N. Abrams, 1996.