Diego Velázquez

Hello! My name is Diego Velázquez. A long, long time ago, I was born in a sunny city in Spain called Seville. When I was a little boy, I found something that I loved to do more than anything else. I loved to paint! I would take my brushes and mix pretty colors together. It felt like magic when I painted pictures of people and all the things I could see. I loved watching them appear right on my canvas.

When I grew up, my paintings became well-known. In the year 1623, the King of Spain, whose name was King Philip IV, heard all about my art. He asked me to come to a big city called Madrid and be his special painter. That was a very important job! I was so happy. I got to paint pictures of the King, the Queen, and their sweet children. Their daughters were princesses, and they were called infantas. I loved to paint their beautiful, fancy clothes and their kind faces.

One day, in the year 1656, I painted my most famous picture. It is called 'Las Meninas,' which means 'The Maids of Honor.' It is a very big painting of the little princess, Margaret Theresa. She is in the picture with her friends, her little dog, and even me! If you look very, very closely in the back of the painting, you can see me standing there with my big paintbrush. It was so much fun to paint everyone together in one big picture.

I lived to be 61 years old, and I spent my whole life making art that I loved. Today, my paintings are in big buildings called museums all around the world. People can still go and look at them. They can see the king, the queen, and the little princess that I painted so long ago, and I hope seeing my art makes them happy.