Francisco José Goya y Lucientes

Francisco José Goya y Lucientes (1746–1828), whose name sometimes includes the noble “de” that Goya himself used erratically, created well over 2,000 works during his long career, in various media, including fresco, oil, etching, lithography, ink, and chalk. As a young artist he competed unsuccessfully in competitions sponsored by the Real Academia de Bellas Artes de San Fernando (hereafter, the Academy) in 1763 and 1766, before travelling to Italy in 1769, where he remained until 1771. In 1775 he arrived in Madrid, charged with painting cartoons for the Royal Tapestry Factory of Santa Barbara, and five years later was admitted as a member of the Academy. Until 1793 his work was commissioned mainly by aristocrats seeking portraits or religious images, and more importantly by the Bourbon kings Charles III (reigned 1759–1788) and his son Charles IV (reigned 1789–1808), for whom Goya created designs for tapestries to adorn the royal residences, as well as portraits and altarpieces. From 1793 onward, more experimental works parallel Goya’s commissioned production, including drawings, small paintings on tinplate, canvas, wood, and ivory, as well as etchings (most famously, Los Caprichos, published in 1799). Though created without a commission, these works found an audience: contemporary inventories include paintings, sometimes called caprichos, not to be confused with the series of etchings published in 1799 under the same title. That same year Goya was appointed First Court Painter, but his courtly world came to an abrupt end in 1808 when Napoleon convinced the Spanish monarchs and their heir to abdicate, and placed his brother Joseph on the Spanish throne. Although the years of Spain’s war against Napoleon (1808–1813) are generally equated with the series of etchings that would be published posthumously as Los Desastres de la Guerra (1863), the artist in fact continued painting portraits of both Spanish and French patrons, still lifes, allegories, and religious paintings. With the 1814 restoration of Ferdinand VII, Goya retained his position as First Court Painter, but received no commissions directly from the Spanish king. By 1819 he was experimenting with lithography—recently introduced in Madrid—and purchased a country house, known at the Quinta del Sordo, where he would paint in oil, directly on the plaster walls, the “Black” paintings—scenes inspired by myth, sorcery, and superstition. In 1824 Goya left Spain and traveled to France, and after a trip to Paris he settled in Bordeaux, where he continued to paint portraits of friends, draw, and exploit the technique of lithography in his unparalleled Bulls of Bordeaux. Retaining his title and his salary as court painter, Goya returned to Madrid twice before dying, in Bordeaux, in 1828. Scholarship on Goya is wide-ranging—from 19th-century biographies with little basis in fact, to essays on his paintings that became increasingly well-known in the early 20th century, to recent technical studies and exhibition catalogues.