Portrait of Victoria Eugenia Fernández de Córdoba, future 18th Duchess of Medinaceli

Portrait of Victoria Eugenia Fernández de Córdoba y Fernández de Henestrosa, first-born daughter of the 17th Duke and Duchess of Medinaceli and, consequently, successor to this house and future 18th Duchess. Given the age of the sitter, Álvarez de Sotomayor must have painted this canvas in the mid-1920s, but unlike the one he painted of her mother around the same time, the background is not a recognisable place but an ideal landscape. This canvas is considered, together with the portrait of María de la Paz, Victoria Eugenia's sister, to be one of the outstanding works of Sotomayor's extensive portrait work. The Fundación Casa Ducal de Medinaceli recently acquired the preparatory sketch, signed by the artist, of this portrait of the man who half a century later, in 1978, founded this institution and endowed it with part of his historical heritage.