Victor Guye

Francisco Goya

National Gallery of Art

A young boy with pale skin, wearing a black suit with densely pattered gold trim and decoration, stands holding an open book in front of a brown background in this vertical portrait painting. His body is angled slightly to our right, but he looks at us with large, slate-blue eyes. He has a round face, a wide nose, and his full, peach-colored lips are barely parted. Short blond hair falls in tousled bangs across his forehead. A tall, oyster-white collar flares up in a wide V along the sides of his neck. His hip-length, long-sleeved black jacket has gold trim and decoration down the open front, along the bottom hem, and at the cuffs. His pants have a high waist, meeting the buttons of the white shirt at his chest. There are two gold buttons on his pants near the waist, framed by his open jacket. Gold trim continues down the sides of his long pants and around the leg openings. He wears black, loafer-style shoes with gray or white stockings or socks. He is lit from our left so casts a shadow to our right, in the dark brown room in which he stands.