Infanta María Luisa (1782–1824) and Her Son Carlos Luis (1799–1883) by http://www.wikidata.org/.well-known/genid/814e2a88c7f03266cea3d34c6d8fe1ef
This portrait of Infanta María Luisa and her infant son Carlos Luis was painted around 1800 by an artist in the circle of Francisco de Goya. It now hangs in the Museo del Prado, Madrid, but for a strange chapter it was private property in France.
Look at the contrast between the luminous white gown and the unmodulated dark background. All the light falls on the faces and the hands. The baby stares directly out with an oddly solemn expression, while the mother's embrace is formal and tender at once.
The Infanta was a daughter of King Charles IV. She married her first cousin and had this son, Carlos Luis, who would grow up amid the collapse of the Spanish Bourbon line. After her death in 1824, the painting's trail went cold on the official inventories.
It resurfaced in the collection of a French sugar merchant named Bernard d'Hendecourt. His life was a web of business schemes, and he eventually fled France after being convicted of forgery and embezzlement. His art collection was seized by creditors and dispersed. This portrait was acquired and eventually returned to Spain.
A royal mother and child, painted for a palace, ended up in a con man's auction. What else in the Prado has a secret passport?
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A young mother holds her son in white against the dark. Her name was Infanta María Luisa. Daughter of King Charles IV of Spain. This portrait vanished from royal records and reappeared in Paris. A sugar merchant owned it next. He later fled France for forgery. His collection was seized and sold. This painting came home to Madrid.