Anton Raphael Mengs, ‘Portrait of Don Luis de Borbon’ (c. 1774-77). National Gallery of Victoria.
Melbourne Portrait Group Seminar: ‘A tale of two portraits: Mengs and Don Luis de Borbón’.
The National Gallery of Victoria has recently acquired a superb portrait by Anton Raphael Mengs (1728-79), one of the eighteenth century’s greatest portrait painters. The sitter is the Infante Don Luis de Borbón (1727-85), brother of the Spanish king, Carlos III. Don Luis was a major patron of the arts, employing the cellist and composer Luigi Boccherini, as well as being an early supporter of the young Goya. Meng’s portrait of the Infante was painted between 1774 and 1777, during his second period in Spain, where he was Primer Pintor (‘First Painter’) to the royal court. Employed principally to decorate the new Palacio Real in Madrid, he had originally attempted to avoid portrait commissions but the portraits that ultimately he did paint in Spain are among his most successful. The portrait of Don Luis, though modest in setting, is a fine example, and the sensitively painted face suggests a close bond between painter and sitter. This paper will introduce Mengs’ portrait to a Melbourne audience and will explore the history of the painting and the context within which it was painted, its relationship to an almost identical version in Cleveland, and its overall place within Mengs’s oeuvre.
Speaker: Mark Shepheard
Monday 19 May, 6:30pm.
Location: Dulcie Hollyock Room, Ground Floor, Baillieu Library (Building 177), University of Melbourne, Parkville (map).
For further information, see the Melbourne Portrait Group website.