Francisco Goya

Francisco de Goya was a Spanish painter and printmaker who is widely regarded as one of the most important artists of the late 18th and early 19th centuries. His paintings, drawings, and engravings reflected contemporary historical upheavals, such as the Peninsular War and the Inquisition, and influenced important 19th- and 20th-century painters. He is often referred to as the last of the Old Masters and the first of the moderns. Goya was born in Fuendetodos, Aragon, Spain, on 30 March 1746 to José Benito de Goya y Franque and Gracia de Lucientes y Salvador. The family had moved that year from the city of Zaragoza, but there is no record why; likely José was commissioned to work there. He studied painting from age 14 under José Luzán y Martinez and moved to Madrid to study with Anton Raphael Mengs. He married Josefa Bayeu in 1773. Their life was characterised by a series of pregnancies and miscarriages, and only one child, a son, survived into adulthood². Goya became a court painter to the Spanish Crown in 1786 and this early portion of his career is marked by portraits of the Spanish aristocracy and royalty, and Rococo-style tapestry cartoons designed for the royal palace. He was guarded, and although letters and writings survive, little is known about his thoughts. He had a severe and undiagnosed illness in 1793 which left him deaf, after which his work became progressively darker and pessimistic². His later easel and mural paintings, prints and drawings appear to reflect a bleak outlook on personal, social and political levels, and contrast with his social climbing. He was appointed Director of the Royal Academy in 1795, the year Manuel Godoy made an unfavorable treaty with France². In 1799, Goya became Primer Pintor de Cámara (Prime Court Painter), the highest rank for a Spanish court painter². In the late 1790s, commissioned by Godoy, he completed his La maja desnuda (The Nude Maja), a remarkably daring nude for the time and clearly indebted to Diego Velázquez². In 1800–01 he painted Charles IV of Spain and His Family, also influenced by Velázquez¹. In 1807, Napoleon led the French army into the Peninsular War against Spain. Goya remained in Madrid during the war, which seems to have affected him deeply. Although he did not speak his thoughts in public, they can be inferred from his Disasters of War series of prints (although published 35 years after his death) and his 1814 paintings The Second of May 1808 and The Third of May 1808¹. Other works from his mid-period include the Caprichos and Los Disparates etching series, and a wide variety of paintings concerned with insanity, mental asylums, witches, fantastical creatures and religious and political corruption, all of which suggest that he feared for both his country's fate and his own mental and physical health². In 1819, at age 73 he bought a house outside Madrid that he called Quinta del Sordo (Deaf Man's Villa). There he created some of his most famous works: the Black Paintings (Pinturas negras), a series of 14 murals painted directly onto the walls of his house, depicting disturbing scenes of violence, horror and despair². Some of the most notable ones are Saturn Devouring His Son, Witches' Sabbath, and The Dog. These paintings were not commissioned and were not meant to be seen by the public². Following a stroke which left him paralyzed on his right side, and with failing eyesight and poor access to painting materials, he moved to Bordeaux, France, in 1824, where he lived until his death². He continued to work until his last years, producing a series of engravings called the Disparates, which were as bleak as the Black Paintings. He also painted some portraits of friends and relatives in France, such as Leandro Fernández de Moratín and his grandson Mariano Goya². He died and was buried on 16 April 1828 aged 82². His body was later re-interred in the Real Ermita de San Antonio de la Florida in Madrid¹², where he had painted the frescoes of the life of St. Anthony of Padua. His skull was missing, a fact that remains a mystery². He was honoured with many exhibitions and tributes in Spain and abroad, and his works are displayed in many museums and galleries around the world. He is considered a master of Spanish art and a precursor of modern art movements such as Impressionism and Expressionism¹.