Portrait of the Marquesa de Santiago

Francisco José de Goya y Lucientes (Francisco de Goya)

1804

Oil on canvas, Oil, Canvas

J. Paul Getty Museum

A woman stands in a dark dress and lace shawl, holding a fan. She is depicted against a landscape with a village and hills under a dark sky. The Marquesa de Santiago strikes a commanding presence, confronting the viewer directly with her hand assertively on her hip. She stands in front of a landscape of gently sloping hills dotted with cottages made up of rough, tan brushstrokes. Her sheer white lace mantilla veil extends to her knees and she holds a closed fan in her left hand, both traditional accessories of Spanish women in the 1700s and 1800s. The Marquesa was known to wear bold makeup, enough that her acquaintances wrote about it, and here, heavily applied rouge, powder, and lipstick accentuate her features. While other portraitists of this time often flattered or i