At Frieze Masters last week, London dealer Guy Stair Sainty hung two of the most fair’s most striking paintings in a mischievous manner. A dramatic image of Napoleon I in his coronation robes by François Pascal Simon, Baron Gérard, painted around 1808, looms over a majestic 1795 portrait by Francisco José de Goya y Lucientes of Don Pedro Gil de Tejada, a banker-cum-intellectual who died fighting against Napoleon’s forces outside Madrid. Stair Sainty says: “It is a marvellous contrast in characterisation and styles.” The Goya portrait, which was commissioned by the Duchess of Osuna, is timely, complementing the current show of works by the 18th-century Spanish painter at the National Gallery in Trafalgar Square. At Frieze Masters, visitors could meanwhile savour the historic rivals. “It is fantastic how the two gentlemen stare at each other,” Stair Sainty exclaims.
