The BBVA Collection is taking part in this exhibition with the loan of the work Don Pantaleón Pérez de Nenín by Francisco de Goya, one of the most outstanding portraits in the oeuvre of the Aragonese master.

Organized by the Fondation Beyeler, in collaboration with the Prado Museum, it is one of the most significant exhibitions ever devoted to Francisco de Goya outside Spain, offering viewers a new sensorial experience and an insight into the artist’s most intimate and personal expression.

Regarded as one of the last great court painters, Goya was also one of the pioneers of modern art, espousing artistic postulates removed from the conventions of his time. And it is precisely in these contradictions where the project takes its starting point.

Featuring 75 paintings, around 50 drawings and 50 prints, the show takes a journey through the painter’s visual world, calling attention to the contrast between his official paintings and his private works. This is indeed a key concept in a proper understanding of Goya’s creative genesis, taking into account that the paintings in which the artist gave free rein to his inner inspiration are mostly in Spanish private collections, as is the case of the work from the BBVA Collection. This project makes it possible to see it alongside pieces from other prestigious Spanish and international institutions.

The work is a unique example within Goya’s output, for it is the only portrait he made of an officer from the armies which fought against Napoleon’s troops in the Peninsular War. It portrays Pantaleón Pérez de Nenín dressed in the uniform of Queen María Luisa’s hussars. In his left hand he is holding an adjutant's sable, whose scabbard is inscribed with the title, signature and date. Worth underscoring is the technical mastery both in the composition of the scene, in which the figure is cut out against a dark black ground, and in the rich colouring that evinces the evolution of Goya’s palette in his mature period.