This intimate copper portrait, which displays Goya's characteristically animated yet fine brushwork, probably dates to the 1790s. While the woman's raven-colored hair and distinct features are rendered with delicacy, her dress is painted with more freedom, building up the drapery with touches of white impasto.

The woman's cost.mes and headdress bear distinct similarities with the artist's 1794 depiction of Doña Maria del Rosario Fernandez (1755 - 1803), an actress also known by her stage name, La Tirana (private collects ion). And the miniature's intimate scale recalls the group of seven portraits Goya produced between 1805 and 1806 on the occasion of his son's marriage (all today in museum collects ions).¹

¹ They depict Goya's son, Javier, his bride, Gumersinda Goicoechea y Galarza, as well as her parents, Juana Galarza de Goicoechea and Miguel Martín de Goicoechea, and Javier's three sisters-in-law, Cesarea Goicoechea y Galarza, Geronima Goicoechea y Galarza, and Manuela Goicoechea y Galarza. Today they are in Zaragoza, Museo de Zaragoza (inv. nos. 51358, 51359); Madrid, Museo del Prado (inv. nos. P004194, P007461); Pasadena, Norton Simon Museum (inv. no. F.1978.03.P); Providence, Rhode Island School of Design Museum (inv. nos. 34.1365, 34.1366).