Real portrait of Diego Velásquez goes up for auction

A full portrait painted by Spanish painter Diego Velázquez of Queen Isabel de Borbón, wife of King Philip IV of Spain, is expected to fetch US$35 million when it is auctioned at Sotheby's New York in February 2024.

Known by several variations of her name – Isabel de France and Isabel de Bourbon – the queen consort was the daughter of the French monarch, King Henry IV, and her representation made by Velázquez is “of a caliber and importance” rarely seen on the market, he said Sotheby's in a statement.
Isabel de Borbón, Queen of Spain, depicts Isabel in her 20s, wearing a sumptuous black court dress. Elizabeth was at the height of her powers when she posed for the painting, a queen widely admired for her intelligence and generosity.

The portrait was first made in the late 1620s, but Velázquez returned to it in 1631, shortly after meeting the Flemish artist Peter Paul Rubens, who encouraged the Spaniard to study the Italian masters. Velázquez probably also wanted to update the outfit that Isabel is seen wearing – a change in the contour of the skirt is visible even to the naked eye.
“Although Velázquez was already widely celebrated when he painted this work, here we see him at a moment of transformation,” said Christopher Apostolo, international head of old master paintings at Sotheby's, in a statement.

After its creation, King Philip hung the painting in the Buen Retiro palace in Madrid, a second house he built on the site of a monastery that he loved to visit to stroll the attached farm. It was displayed as a pendant, or a combined work of art, with Velázquez's “Philip IV in Black,” now in the Prado Museum in Madrid.
When Napoleon invaded Spain in 1808, the painting was taken to France and displayed in an exhibition in the newly created Louvre. It hung in the Galerie Espagnole, or Spanish gallery, under the reign of Louis Philippe – the so-called “Citizen King” and last king of France before the rule of Napoleon III.
From there, the painting was sold to banker and famous book collector Henry Huth, who hung it at his estate in Wykehurst Park, England. The painting remained in the family until it was sold in 1950 and has been in the current owners' collection since 1978.

The painting will be on display at Sotheby's galleries on New Bond Street, London, until December 6, the first time it will be publicly displayed in the UK in five decades. He will then travel to New York for a pre-sale exhibition ahead of Sotheby's annual Master Paintings auction on February 1.
The $35 million estimate for the sale is more than double the current auction record for a work by Velázquez. His painting “Santa Ruffina” (1629-32) was sold at Sotheby's in London in 2007 for US$16.9 million. According to the auction house, the last time a painting of this caliber by the artist was auctioned was in 1970, when his “Juan de Pareja” (1650) sold for £2.3 million (£2.9 million). dollars) – nearly tripling the previous world record for any auction. painting.

Source: Artnet News