Realization of Diego Velázquez's royal portrait at auction after half a century.

A pictorial portrait of Spanish Queen Isabella de Bourbon, wife of Spanish King Philip IV, is expected to be auctioned by Sotheby's in New York in February 2024.

Known by several variants of her name - Elizabeth of France and Isabella of Bourbon - the queen consort was the daughter of French monarch Henry IV, and her image, created by Velázquez, is of particular value and rarely appears at auction, Sotheby's said in a statement.

The portrait of Queen Isabella de Bourbon depicts her in her early 20s wearing a sumptuous black royal court dress. Isabella was at the height of her power when she posed for the painting, and was widely recognized as a queen for her intelligence and generosity.

The portrait was created in the late 1620s, but Velázquez returned to it in 1631, shortly after meeting Flemish painter Peter Paul Rubens, who encouraged the Spaniard to study the Italian masters. Velázquez likely also wanted to update the costume Isabella wore in the portrait - the change in the contour of the skirt is visible even to the naked eye.

"Although Velázquez was already widely renowned when he created this work, here we see him in a moment of transformation," said Christopher Apostol, international head of Sotheby's Old Master Paintings department, in a statement.

After creating the portrait, King Philip hung it in the Buen Retiro Palace in Madrid, the second house he built on the site of a monastery where he liked to stroll around the adjoining farm. It was displayed next to Vlazquez Philip IV in Black, now in the Prado Museum in Madrid.

When Napoleon invaded Spain in 1808, the painting was taken to France and put on display in the newly opened Louvre. It hung in the Spanish Gallery during the reign of Louis Philippe - the so-called "citizen king" and the last king of France before the reign of Napoleon III.

The painting was then sold to merchant banker and noted book collector Henry Huth, who hung it on his Wickhurst Park estate in England. The painting remained in the family until 1950 and has been in the collection of its current owners since 1978.

The painting will be on view at Sotheby's galleries on New Bond Street in London until December 6, for the first time after a fifty-year hiatus.

The sale is expected to fetch $35 million, double the current auction record for a Velázquez work. His painting St. Rufina (1629-32) was sold at a Sotheby's auction in London in 2007 for $16.9 million. According to the auction house, the last time a painting of this quality by the artist hit the auction block was in 1970, when Juan de Pareja (1650) sold for £2.3 million (almost triple the previous world auction record for any painting).