| Portrait of Juan de Pareja | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Artist | Diego Velázquez |
| Year | c. 1650 |
| Medium | Oil on canvas |
| Dimensions | 81.3 cm × 69.9 cm (32.0 in × 27.5 in) |
| Location | Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York City |
The Portrait of Juan de Pareja is a painting by Spanish artist Diego Velázquez of the enslaved Juan de Pareja, a notable painter in his own right, who was owned by Velázquez at the time the painting was completed. Velázquez painted the portrait in Rome, while traveling in Italy, in 1650. It is the earliest known portrait of a Spanish man of African descent.[1]
It was the first painting to sell for more than £1,000,000. At the time of the painting's purchase by the Metropolitan Museum of Art in 1970 they considered it "among the most important acquisitions in the Museum's history".[2] The painting is on display at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City.
- ^ Stoichita, Victor (2010). "The Image of the Black in Spanish Art: Sixteenth and Seventeenth Centuries". In Bindman, David; Gates, Jr, Henry Louis (eds.). The Image of the Black in Western Art, Volume III. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press. p. 226. ISBN 9780674052611. OCLC 555658364.
- ^ "Juan de Pareja by Diego Velázquez". The Metropolitan Museum of Art Bulletin. 29. June 1971.