Portrait of Mariana de Silva y Sarmiento, duquesa de Huescar (1740-1784), half-length, in a white dress and fur-lined wrap, holding a ring and a key, a draped curtain beyond -- unfinished

The attribution of this hitherto unpublished portrait, which would appear to be an unfinished version of the portrait in the collection of the duque de Alba y Berwick, Madrid, executed in 1775, has been confirmed by Steffi Roettgen (written communication with the vendor, 25 February 2010). The sitter was the eighth daughter of the marqués de Santa Cruz and D.a Maria Cayetana Sarmiento y Sotomayor, marquesa de Arcicollar. The portrait was probably painted in celebration of her second marriage, to Don Joaquin Pognatelli Aragon y Moncayo, in 1775, making it one of the few known paintings which Mengs executed during his second stay in Madrid.