Portrait of Don Sebastien Marie Gabriel de Bourbon-Bragance

A boy in a uniform with a red collar and cuffs stands in white trousers and black boots, pointing with his right hand to a distant landscape. His left hand rests on a sword at his waist, and a plumed hat sits on a rock in the right foreground. In the background are water and mountains. It is oil on canvas, measuring 144.0 x 105.0 cm.

According to the museum's commentary, the sitter is Don Sebastian Marie Gabriel (1811-1875), a great-grandson of King Charles III of Spain. He is said to have been the last only son, born to Don Pedro and a Portuguese princess, to carry the blood of both the Spanish House of Bourbon and the Portuguese House of Braganza.

As for the date, the scholar Jose Gudiol takes it to be around 1815-16, since the boy looks about five years old. The museum says that, given points such as the boy's uniform being thought to be that of the Spanish royal horse guards adopted after 1814, it is natural to place it between about 1815 and 1820, the last few years in which Goya served at court.

The museum also explains that a contrast of finely detailed accessories and props against a simple treatment of the face and clothes is a feature of Goya's portraits of children. The boy is said to have grown up to be a highly cultured man, an important member of an academy and a physicist, and also known as a collector of art.