Pepita Tudó

Pepita Tudó, painted by José de Madrazo

Josefa Petra Francisca de Paula de Tudó y Catalán, Alemany y Luesia , better known as Pepita Tudó (born May 19, 1779 in Cádiz , † September 20, 1869 in Madrid ) was the long-time lover and later wife of Manuel de Godoy , the first minister of the Spanish King Charles IV. Research is increasingly certain that she is the maja in Francisco de Goya's two famous pictures.

biography

Pepita Tudó was a half-orphan - her parents were the artillery officer Antonio de Tudó y Alemany and Catalina Cathalán y Luecia, who died at an early age . Together with her mother and her two sisters Magadalena and Socorro , she lived in the house of the Spanish politician and first minister of Charles IV, Manuel de Godoy, who began a love affair with her around 1800. At the same time he was most certainly the lover of the Spanish Queen María Luisa de Parma , the wife of Charles IV. This forced or persuaded him on the one hand out of jealousy, on the other hand out of political considerations, to marry María Teresa de Borbón y Vallabriga , which in October 1797 was closed and from the daughter Carlota Luisa de Godoy y Borbón (1800-1886) emerged.

The relationship between Godoy and his mistress continued, however, and in 1805 and 1807, Pepita gave birth to Manuel de Godoy's two sons ( Manuel and Luis ). In 1807, at the urging of Godoy, she was awarded the titles of Condesa de Castillo Fiel and Vicondesa de Rocafuerte by Charles IV . After Charles IV's forced abdication in 1808 and the accession to the throne of Ferdinand VII , who was an avowed and bitter opponent of Godoy, he and Pepita fled to France, where they made stops in Fontainebleau , Compiegne and Aix-en-Provence to stay in Marseille for four years . In 1812 they moved to Rome, from where they were exiled by Pope Pius VII to Pesaro at the instigation of Ferdinand VII . In Verona they met Charles IV and his wife María Luisa, who were able to obtain the papal declaration of the invalidity of the marriage between Godoy and María Teresa de Borbón y Vallabriga. Ferdinand VII also expelled them from Genoa and Livorno , so that they spent some time in Pisa . Although they had previously secretly married, Manuel de Godoy and Pepita Tudó were officially married only after the death of Godoy's wife (1828) on February 7, 1829. In 1832 they both moved to Paris again, where both led a rather poor life - the French King Louis-Philippe granted them an annual pension of 5,000 francs. In 1834 Pepita Tudó returned to Madrid to enforce various legal and property claims of her husband - an undertaking that ended ten years later with the confiscation of his property by the Spanish state. Godoy died impoverished in Paris in 1851; Pepita Tudó lived in Madrid for another 17 years until she passed away in 1869. At an old age, Pepita confided to a journalist that her husband had known only one love throughout his life - Queen María Luisa ...

The naked Maja (around 1800)

The clothed Maja (around 1803)

photos

The two Goya paintings " The Naked Maja " (around 1800) and " The Clothed Maja " (around 1803) clearly depict one and the same person, whose identity, however, has not yet been clarified beyond doubt - for a long time research tended towards this Duchess of Alba (1762–1802), but she was 38 years old in 1800 and probably already dead when the second picture was made. Since both pictures belong to Manuel de Godoy, there is much to suggest that they are two portraits by Pepita Tudó, which can also be better reconciled with the seductive youthfulness of the person depicted. However, it cannot be completely ruled out that it is a completely unknown other lover of Godoy.

Others

• In 1901, the Spanish novelist Ceferino Palencia wrote a novel called Pepita Tudó .
• In the semi-biographical film Volavérunt by the Spanish director Bigas Luna from 1999, the role of Pepita Tudó is played by Penélope Cruz .
• In the novel "Goya" by Lion Feuchtwanger (1950) Pepita Tudo (here called "Pepa") plays an important role. Here she is also shown as the painter's temporary lover.

Web links

• Pepita Tudó, la Maja Desnuda y Vestida (Spanish)

Remarks

1. ↑ September 7, 1869 is also mentioned.