DOMINGOS SEQUEIRA - 1768-1837 Portrait of the son of the Marquis of Marialva graphite on paper moisture stains unsigned Dimensões (altura x comprimento x largura) - 16 x 15 cm Notes: 1. Back with handwritten inscription, signed by Luís Xavier da Costa, with the following
content: ""Desenho original do pintor Domingos Antonio de Sequeira para a litografia
feita em Paris, em 1824: Retrato do filho do marquês de Marialva / (Existia na colecção
Rebêllo Valente, do Porto, e foi-me oferecido em fevereiro de 1925 pelo Dr. A. Vasco
Rebêllo Valente) / Veja os meus livros "A morte de Camões" e "A obra litográfica de
Domingos Antonio de Sequeira" (Págs. 38 - 45 - 50-), onde vem reproduzido.";
2. "A obra litográfica de Domingos António de Sequeira" to which the inscription refers
corresponds to the Offprint of «Arqueologia e História» - IV». Composition and printing of
Tipografia do Comércio. Lisbon, 1925;
3. The story of this drawing, which led to a lithograph, is told by Luís Xavier da Costa in his
aforementioned study 'A obra litográfica de Domingos António de Sequeira';
4. In short, the story is as follows: the last Marquis of Marialva had a natural son with a
certain Madame d'Ayala, when he was already in Paris, in the last years of his life. As the
Marquis died on November 24th, suddenly and unexpectedly, the said Lady and the child
- who would have been little more than a year old - were in a weak financial situation.
Sequeira, who was also in Paris at the time, made the lithograph in order to carry out a
kind of subscription among his friends to raise money to support the boy. In a letter to his
brother-in-law, dated April 28, 1824, he writes 'o Retrato do filho do Marquês (destas vão
4) e que vai reprezentado o inocente izolado no mundo no meio da França esperando
socorro' (daí estar representado com as mãos levantadas, como se estivesse a suplicar
e sobre um mapa...). In the meantime, there are a number of official contacts at the
Portuguese Court to appoint a legal guardian for the child. It is all this documentation that
Xavier da Costa publishes.
In one of the last letters, dated March 1825, it is said that the child ended up dying on the
1st of that month, due to 'a huma catharral complicada com a dentição'. The whole
process was then without effect and had no continuity.

Cabral Moncada Leilões acknowledges and thanks Doctor Alexandra Markl for confirming the
authorship of the present work and the precious indications, namely bibliographical, which
precede.