Existing comment:
Francisco Goya
General Nicolas Philippe Guye, 1810
Nicolas Philippe Guye, a French general during the Napoleonic Wars, received a hand wound at the Battle of Austerlitz and subsequently became aide-de-camp to Joseph Bonaparte, Napoleon's brother. (Joseph was king of Naples and, later, King Joseph I of Spain.)
As a member of the French army occupying Spain, Guye was governor of Seville when Francisco Goya painted his portrait in 1810; King Joseph had just made him marquis of Rio-Milanos as well. Guye wears the orders of his successful career; Member of the Legion of Honor, Commander of the Two Sicilies, and Commander of Joseph's Royal Order of Spain. Guye was one of Goya's loyal patrons. ...
Here Guye appears a figure of state in all his dignity as well as a sympathetic human being, despite his being an enemy general. Some scholars think Goya was sympathetic to the French invaders, and may have considered them heroes for liberating Spain from the Inquisition, which they abolished. Goya later went into exile in France and he died in the city of Bordeaux. |