Portrait of Francisco de Saavedra

The loose brushwork and speed of execution in this painting contrast with the usual formality and polish of full-length portraits at the time.

With only a few strokes of paint, Goya rendered the texture of the sitter’s silk coat, as well as the papers and inkwells on the table. Only Francisco de Saavedra’s face and hands have been carefully and thickly modelled.

Saavedra was the Spanish Minister of Finance when he posed for Goya. The painting was commissioned by his friend and then Minister of Justice, Gaspar Melchor de Jovellanos, perhaps to accompany his own portrait by Goya (now in the Prado museum, Madrid). Both men were eager to bring reform to the conservative Spanish government and embodied a new, but short-lived, moment of progressive thinking.