Adorable Story #98: Goya's Red Boy — Part 2

An Icon of Art and Celebrity

“[...] for Mrs. Gilbert Miller, the famous Kitty Miller, who was eternally best dressed, very rich, a great, great hostess, and who conducted all of this busy, stylish life in rooms created for her by Billy Baldwin. Her apartment at 550 Park Avenue was enormous and pale and immaculate, exuding that instant sense of fantastic housekeeping which could be perceived the minute you stepped through the door. The big drawing room, which was really two rooms that had been thrown together by Billy, was renowned for the Goya portrait of the little boy in the red suit, which hung on the wall between the windows opposite the fireplace. For half of every year it hung at the Met. Mrs. Millers father, Jules Bache, had left it jointly to her and to the museum. As she grew older, it became annually more difficult for the Met to get the painting back. No wonder! The furniture was French and light in scale, covered in unobtrusive silks in soft tones. The curtains, equally light, were made of striped silk and, rather than having elaborate trims and valances, they were made in the simplest possible way, trimming with a self-stripe and hung from a very plain top molding covered in the same material as the curtains themselves.”

— Mark Hampton, in Legendary Decorators of the 20th Century

This is the Part 2 of the Adorable Story #98.

Part 1 can be found here.

In this Part 2, we will review how Francisco de Goya’s portrait of Don Manuel Osorio de Zúñiga became widely known simply as the “Red Boy” (drawing inspiration from the equally famous Gainsborough’s “Blue Boy”), the role of exhibitions and reproductions in popularising the painting in 20th Century, and, finally, its cultural impact at the intersection of arts and celebrity.

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Table of Contents: The Painting / Joseph Duveen / Paris / New York: Jules Bache / Kitty Miller / The Nickname “Red Boy” and the Influence of Celebrity Culture / Exhibitions and Public Reception / The Role of Reproductions and Popular Media / Artistic and Cultural Impact / Legacy

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The Nickname “Red Boy” and the Influence of Celebrity Culture

The nickname “Red Boy” emerged as a practical and culturally resonant way for American audiences to relate to the painting.

The original Spanish title, Don Manuel Osorio de Zúñiga, proved challenging for many to remember or pronounce. Drawing inspiration from the nickname “Blue Boy,” famously associated with Thomas Gainsborough’s portrait of Jonathan Buttall, the moniker “Red Boy” captured the painting’s essence while simplifying its identity for a broader audience.

Thomas Gainsborough, The Blue Boy (Jonathan Buttall), 1770, — Henry E. Huntington Art Gallery, San Marino, California

The comparison to Gainsborough’s Blue Boy was not coincidental. Both paintings feature young boys dressed in striking colors, and both became icons of art collecting and cultural exchange in the early 20th century. Jospeh Duveen himself drew parallels between the two works, hoping to replicate the success he had achieved with the sale and promotion of Gainsborough’s masterpiece.

By the 1930s and 1940s, the Red Boy had become a symbol of prestige and taste, frequently featured in exhibitions and publications.