.jpg?w=1)
.jpg?w=1)
.jpg?w=1)
.jpg?w=1)
Lot Essay
The present painting depicts Alfonso, Prince of Asturias (10 May 1907 – 6 September 1938), later the Count of Covadonga, who was, until the abolition of the monarchy in 1931, the heir apparent to the Spanish throne. Painted on the 10th of July 1907 at the Palace of La Granja de San Ildefonso when the young prince was exactly 2 months old, it has been retained by the descendants of King Alfonso XIII of Spain since it was painted. The prince is depicted wearing the Insigne Orden del Toisón de Oro (The Order of the Golden Fleece), which was conferred on him at his baptism at only 8 days old.
Though the Royal family was deposed and went into exile in 1931 when Spain became a republic, Alfonso renounced his rights to the then-defunct throne to marry a commoner in 1933, not unlike his second cousin, Edward VIII of England. They divorced in 1937, and Alfonso married again, though the marriage lasted only 6 months. In 1938 during the Spanish Civil War, he publicly stated his willingness to accept the Spanish crown if called upon, reversing his renunciation and leading to his disavowal by his father. In September of that same year Alfonso met his untimely end at only 31 years old as a result of a car crash in Miami. Though he appeared only to have sustained minor injuries, his hemophilia, inherited through his great-grandmother Queen Victoria, ultimately led to fatal internal bleeding.
Sorolla made three portraits of the prince during this sitting. Writing to his good friend Pedro Gil Moreno de Mora on 1-2 July 1907 he said, 'I am also going to make a large painting of the little prince, who is very pretty and chubby, he looks very much like his mother, he has blue eyes and is very blond' (translated, Epistolarios de Sorolla I, 2007, pp. 240-242, letter 260). The large painting the artist referenced was never completed, the three wonderfully fresh studies stand on their own.
We are grateful to Blanca Pons-Sorolla for confirming the authenticity of this work, which will be included as no. BPS 3940 in her forthcoming catalogue raisonné.
Though the Royal family was deposed and went into exile in 1931 when Spain became a republic, Alfonso renounced his rights to the then-defunct throne to marry a commoner in 1933, not unlike his second cousin, Edward VIII of England. They divorced in 1937, and Alfonso married again, though the marriage lasted only 6 months. In 1938 during the Spanish Civil War, he publicly stated his willingness to accept the Spanish crown if called upon, reversing his renunciation and leading to his disavowal by his father. In September of that same year Alfonso met his untimely end at only 31 years old as a result of a car crash in Miami. Though he appeared only to have sustained minor injuries, his hemophilia, inherited through his great-grandmother Queen Victoria, ultimately led to fatal internal bleeding.
Sorolla made three portraits of the prince during this sitting. Writing to his good friend Pedro Gil Moreno de Mora on 1-2 July 1907 he said, 'I am also going to make a large painting of the little prince, who is very pretty and chubby, he looks very much like his mother, he has blue eyes and is very blond' (translated, Epistolarios de Sorolla I, 2007, pp. 240-242, letter 260). The large painting the artist referenced was never completed, the three wonderfully fresh studies stand on their own.
We are grateful to Blanca Pons-Sorolla for confirming the authenticity of this work, which will be included as no. BPS 3940 in her forthcoming catalogue raisonné.