The Prado exhibits works by Goya and Esteve, portraitists to the Osuna Family

The recent addition to the Museum’s collection of Portrait of Manuela Isidra Téllez-Girón, future Duchess of Abrantes by Augustín Esteve y Marqués, acquired with funds from the Óscar Alzaga Villaamil donation, will allow for greater knowledge of this interesting painter who was in his day considered the finest court portraitist after Francisco de Goya. This work completes the Alzaga donation, which was accepted last March and comprises six important paintings plus funding for the acquisition of a seventh. For the first time the exhibition brings together Esteve’s portraits of the Duke and Duchess of Osuna’s children, including outstanding works loaned by the Fundación Casa Ducal de Medinaceli, the Duque del Infantado collection and the Masaveu and Martínez Lanzas-de las Heras collections, with the aim of providing a context for the portrait of Manuela Isidra. Furthermore, through the organisation of this exhibition the Prado is the first museum to focus on Esteve with t