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| Self-portrait graphite on beige paper 11.5 x 15.1 cm Louvre, Paris |
Francisco de Goya was a Spanish artist widely considered one of the most important painters of the Romantic period. The artist took on a wide array of subject matter, including self-portraiture, fantasy scenes, landscapes, and still lifes. “Painting, like poetry, selects in the universe whatever she deems most appropriate to her ends,” he once explained. Born Francisco José de Goya y Lucientes in the town of Fuendetodos, Spain on March 30, 1746, he began studying art under the painter Jose Luzán at the age of 14. During the 1770s, Goya produced works such as The Parasol (1777), which meld the unlikely pairing of cheery Rococo aesthetics with the moody works of Diego Velázquez.
The artist became the court painter of Charles III of Spain in 1786, and continued painting for the Spanish court until Napoleons invasion of Spain in 1808. During the Napoleonic wars, Goya’s palette significantly darkened as he produced some of his most famous works. Among these paintings are the The Second of May 1808 (1814) and The Third of May 1808 (1814), which show the terrors of war. Three years before he left his native country, Goya produced 14 paintings directly onto the plaster walls of his farmhouse. These works, collectively known as The Black Paintings (1821), depicted terrifying supernatural themes and heinous violence.
Living in exile in Bordeaux, France, the artist died on April 16, 1828. His works went on to have a profound influence on both Édouard Manet and Pablo Picasso. Today, Goya’s works are held in the collections of the Art Institute of Chicago, the Hermitage Museum in St. Petersburg, the Prado Museum in Madrid, and the Louvre Museum in Paris, among others.
This is part 6 of a 10-part series on the works of Francisco de Goya:
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| 1800 The Family of Carlos IV oil on canvas 280 x 33.6 cm Museo del Prado, Madrid |
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| 1800 The Family of Carlos IV detail |
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| 1800 The Family of Carlos IV detail |
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| 1800-04 May God Repay You etching, aquatint and drypoint on laid paper 17.2 x 23 cm (plate) |
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| 1800-05 The Clothed Maja oil on canvas 97 x 190 cm Museo del Prado, Madrid |
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| c1800-05 Young Lady Wearing a Mantilla and Basquina oil on canvas 109.5 x 77.5 cm National Gallery of Art, Washington, DC |
c1800-1810 Majas on a Balcony
The women known as majas visually distinguished themselves through opulent, exaggerated traditional dress that became synonymous with Spanish popular culture. Goya’s innovative composition of majas on a balcony seen from the street accompanied by somewhat threatening male companions—was one of his most well-known paintings.
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| c1800-1810 Majas on a Balcony (attributed to Goya) oil on canvas 194.9 x 125.7 cm Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York |
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| 1801 Don Antonio Noriega oil on canvas 102.6 x 80.9 cm National Gallery of Art, Washington, DC |
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| 1801-03 Dream of Flogging black watercolour on ivory, moderately textured laid paper 23.3 x 14.3 cm |
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| c1801–03c (or c1813–19) Unholy Union brush with Indian ink and wash and traces of pen and ink on laid paper 17.6 x 12.7 cm Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York |
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| c1801 Portrait of Don Ramón de Posada y Soto oil on canvas 110.2 x 85.7 cm de Young / Legion of Honour fine arts museums of San Francisco, CA |
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| c1802 Cardinal Luis María de Borbón y Vallabriga oil on canvas 200 x 106 cm Museo del Prado, Madrid |
c1803-04 Bartolomé Sureda y Miserol
This is one of Goya’s liveliest male portraits. The sitter’s relaxed stance reflects the painter’s intimate response to a friend, a young liberal whose disheveled hair and garb in the mode of revolutionary France speaks not only of his affinity for contemporary French fashion, but also of his sympathy for current French politics.
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| c1803-04 Bartolomé Sureda y Miserol oil on canvas 119.7 x 79.3 cm National Gallery of Art, Washington, DC |
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| c1803-04 Thérèse Louise de Sureda oil on canvas 119.7 x 79.4 cm National Gallery of Art, Washington, DC |
1804 Ignacio Garcini y Queralt
An official in Spain’s War Department, Garcini wears the uniform of the Corps of Engineers in this somewhat puffed up, self-satisfied image. The splayed collar and decorative buttonholes help to animate his formal attire, which was originally more severe: the embroidered red cross and the badge of the Order of Santiago are decorations he received in 1806 and must have been added later. After the French invasion of Spain in 1808, Garcini became a collaborator of the enemy, and in 1811 he wrote the book Chronicle of Spain Since the Reign of Charles IV: Account of the Persecution Suffered by Colonel D. Ignacio Garcini.
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| 1804 Ignacio Garcini y Queralt (1752–1825), Brigadier of Engineers oil on canvas 104.1 x 83.2 cm Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York |
1804 Josefa de Castilla Portugal
Evidently conceived as a pendant to the portrait of her husband, Ignacio Garcini y Queralt, this is a radically different, comparatively unceremonious portrait. Doña Garcini’s pregnancy may account for her loose dress and hair, but her pose as well as the palette and paint handling all tie this depiction to artistic precedents that Goya would have known in the Spanish royal collections: Rubens’s robust, red-haired women and Rembrandt’s monumental heroines, notably his Judith at the Banquet of Holofernes of 1634 (Museo del Prado, Madrid).
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| 1804 Josefa de Castilla Portugal y van Asbrock de Garcini (1775-c1850) oil on canvas 104.1 x 82.2 cm Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York |
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| 1804 Portrait of the Marquesa de Santiago oil on canvas 209.9 x 126.7 cm The J. Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles |
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| 1804 The 12th Marchioness of Villafranca painting her Husband oil on canvas 195 x 126 cm Museo del Prado, Madrid |
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| 1804-06 Commerce tempera on canvas 227 cm diameter Museo del Prado, Madrid |
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| c1804-14 It's a Pity You Don't Have Something Else to Do! brush and brown wash, pen and black ink 20.3 x 14 cm The J. Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles |
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| c1804 An Officer (Conde de Teba?) oil on canvas 63.2 x 48.9 cm The Frick Collection, New York |
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| before 1805 Doña Isabel de Porcel oil on canvas 82 x 54.6 cm The National Gallery, London |
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| 1805 Manuela Goicoechea y Galarza oil on copperplate 81 cm diameter Museo del Prado, Madrid |
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| 1805 The Marchioness of Santa Cruz oil on canvas 125 x 208 cm diameter Museo del Prado, Madrid |
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| 1805 The Marchioness of Santa Cruz detail |
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| c1805 Agriculture tempera on canvas 227 cm diameter Museo del Prado, Madrid |
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| c1805 Allegory of Industry tempera on canvas 227 cm diameter Museo del Prado, Madrid |
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| 1806 Portrait of Don Tadeo Bravo de Rivero oil on canvas 207 x 116 cm Brooklyn Museum, New York |
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| 1806-07 The Woman with the Fan oil on canvas 103 x 84.5 cm Louvre, Paris |
c1806-11 Señora Sabasa Garcia
Señora Sabasa García was the niece of Evaristo Pérez de Castro, Spain's minister of foreign affairs, for whom Goya was painting an official portrait when, according to a perhaps legendary anecdote, the young woman appeared. The artist, struck by her beauty, stopped work and asked permission to paint her portrait. With images like this, spotlighting the restrained fire and beauty of the subject, Goya created the visual vocabulary that embodies the words "Spanish beauty," just as his earlier tapestry cartoons and genre paintings of popular pastimes distilled the essence of Spanish life.
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| c1806-11 Señora Sabasa Garcia oil on canvas 71 x 58 cm National Gallery of Art, Washington, DC |
c1806 Friar Pedro series
In small, lively paintings made for his own pleasure or for a few discerning patrons, Francisco de Goya explored satirical and popular aspects of Spanish life. This series was inspired by a contemporary event, the capture of notorious criminal El Maragato by Friar Pedro de Saldivia in 1806. After escaping from prison, El Maragato spent two months stealing food, guns, and money before trying to take Friar Pedro and other innocent people hostage. The friar outsmarted the bandit, however, seizing his gun, shooting him in the thigh as he tried to flee, and finally tying him up. This story was extremely popular in the early 19th century and Spanish artists memorialised it in images, poems, and songs.
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| c1806 El Maragato Threatens Friar Pedro de Zaldivia with His Gun oil on panel 41.6 x 51.2 cm (framed) Art Institute of Chicago, IL |
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| c1806 Friar Pedro Binds El Maragato with a Rope oil on panel 29.2 x 38.5 cm Art Institute of Chicago, IL |
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| c1806 Friar Pedro Clubs El Maragato with the Butt of the Gun oil on panel 29.2 x 38.5 cm Art Institute of Chicago, IL |
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| c1806 Friar Pedro Clubs El Maragato with the Butt of the Gun oil on panel 29.2 x 38.5 cm Art Institute of Chicago, IL |
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| c1806 Friar Pedro Shoots El Maragato as His Horse Runs Off oil on panel 29.2 x 38.5 cm Art Institute of Chicago, IL |
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| c1806 Friar Pedro Wrests the Gun from El Maragato oil on panel 29.2 x 38.5 cm Art Institute of Chicago, IL |
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| c1806 Portrait of a Man, also known as Portrait of Don Evaristo Pérez de Castro (1778-1849) oil on canvas 99 x 68 cm Louvre, Paris |
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| c1807 Portrait of Isidoro Maiquez oil on canvas 82.3 x 63.3 cm Art Institute of Chicago, IL |
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| 1808 The Colossus oil on canvas 116 x 105 cm Museo del Prado, Madrid |
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| 1808-12 Dead Fowl oil on canvas 45.5 x 62.5 cm Museo del Prado, Madrid |
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| 1808-12 Dead Turkey oil on canvas 45 x 62 cm Museo del Prado, Madrid |
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| 1808-12 Still life with sheep's head oil on canvas 45 x 67.5 cm Louvre, Paris |
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| 1809 Manuel Silvela y García Aragón oil on canvas 95 x 68 cm Museo del Prado, Madrid |
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| before1810 Landscape with Waterfall etching and burnished aquatint on laid paper 16.6 x 28.5 cm |
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| before 1810 The Big Rock etching and burnished aquatint on laid paper 17.1 x 28.2 cm (plate) |
1810 Victor Guye
On the back of the original fabric (now concealed by the lining): Ce portrait de mon Fils a été peint par Goya pour faire le pendant de celui de mon Frère le Général. Vt Guye. (This portrait of my son was painted by Goya as a pendant to that of my brother the General. V[incen]t Guye.)
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| 1810 Victor Guye oil on canvas 103.5 x 84.5 cm National Gallery of Art, Washington, DC |
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| c1810-11 Portrait of the Actress Antonia Zarate oil on canvas 71 x 58 cm The State Hermitage Museum, St. Petersburg |
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| 1810-12 Saint John the Baptist in the Desert oil on canvas 112 x 82 cm Museo del Prado, Madrid |
1810c José Costa y Bonells
The dazzling whites of this child’s elaborate costume, tailored in imitation of a soldier’s uniform, set him apart from the additional military references guised as toys: a horse, drum, and rifle with fixed bayonet. This extraordinary portrait is most closely related to works that Goya painted shortly after 1810 and seems to allude to the Spanish War of Independence (1808–14). Known by the nickname Pepito, the sitter was the son of Rafael Costa de Quintana, doctor to King Ferdinand VII; his mother was the daughter of Jaime Bonells, doctor to the Alba family, important patrons of Goya’s.
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| c1810 José Costa y Bonells (died l870), called Pepito oil on cnvas 105.1 x 84.5 cm Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York |
c1810 Portrait of General José Manuel Romero
The early 19th century was a troubled time in Spain. After Napoleon placed his brother, Joseph Bonaparte, on the Spanish throne in 1808, the people rose up in rebellion, eventually driving the French out with the help of the British army. Although his own sentiments were patriotic and liberal, Francisco de Goya dutifully fulfilled his obligations as first painter to the king. This is a portrait of José Manuel Romero, a minister under Joseph Bonaparte, although the degree to which the man is overwhelmed by his splendid court uniform and decorations may suggest a certain lack of sympathy on the part of the artist.
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| c1810 Portrait of General José Manuel Romero oil on canvas 105.5 x 87.7 cm Art Institute of Chicago, IL |
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| c1810 The Hanged Monk oil on panel 31 x 39.2 cm Art Institute of Chicago, IL |
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| 1812-14 The Duke of Wellington oil on mahogany panel 64.3 x 52.4 cm The National Gallery, London |
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| 1812-20 The Anglers brush and brown wash on paper 19.7 x 13.5 cm |
