Artist Stories

Did Goya Make a Career?

Magda Michalska 2 January 2018 min Read

Goya’s paintings are often traumatizing and very very dark. It’s because his activity coincided with the last period of the Enlightenment and the rule of the Inquisition, as well as the trauma of the Napoleonic Wars. Let’s trace the development of his style and iconography to see whether we can say that he made a career:

Early Works 1760s-1790s

Francisco Goya, A woman and two children by a fountain, 1786, Thyssen-Bornemisza Museum, Madrid, Spain
Francisco Goya, A Woman and Two Children by a Fountain, 1786, Thyssen-Bornemisza Museum, Madrid, Spain.

He began working in Catholic Spain as a portrait painter to the aristocracy, and the royal family. Born near Saragossa to a family of craftsmen, he trained in Madrid and, briefly, in Rome. From c.1775 he was producing tapestry cartoons for the Royal factory which were usually genre scenes of peasant fetes and carnivals.

1795 Director of the San Fernando Academy; 1799  First Painter to The King

Francisco Goya, Charles IV of Spain and his Family, 1800-1801, Museo Del Prado, Madrid, Spain, Reproduction via Wikimedia Commons (public domain).

He was a liberal figure much influenced by republicanism, anti-clericalism and radicalism of French Enlightenment philosophy. Initially, he was a supporter of Napoleon, yet as the Napoleonic Wars in Spain resulted in massacres, the trauma of the contradictions between his ideals and reality, coupled with the illness which left him deaf, produced personal crises for the artist and was the source of his rich creativity.

Peninsular War & Spanish Uprising

Francisco Goya, Here neither, in: Disasters of War series, 1815,Goya Make a Career
Francisco Goya, Here Neither, in the “Disasters of War” series, 1815.

Having reconciled himself with the restored Spanish monarchy he began a series of etchings The Disasters of War 1810-1820 that examined the atrocities of the Peninsula War and present a profound indictment of the horrors of warfare. In 1815 Goya was summoned before the Inquisition. He had to account for his tacit support for the French, and, for the ‘pornographic’ image of The Naked Maja (you can read more about it there).

His Late Works 1819-23

Francisco de Goya, Asmodea or Fantastic Vision, c. 1820-1823, Museo del Prado, Madrid, Spain, Reproduction via Wikimedia Commons (public domain).

In 1819 Goya suffered a severe physical/mental breakdown and in 1824 he applied to the Spanish King for leave to retire. He left for Bordeaux, in France, where he died in 1828. His late works, so-called Black Paintings (Pinturas Negras), were filled with demonic and grotesque images, expressive of his torment. He painted them on the walls of his house, yet the murals are now transferred onto canvas for all to see.

Recommended

Belkis Ayon, The Supper, 1991 Artist Stories

Exploring the Collographs of Belkis Ayón, Cuban Master of Printmaking

Belkis Ayón's transgressive art explored a secret all-male religion called the Abakuá in Cuba. She died tragically aged just 32, leaving behind some of the finest print-making of the 20th century.

Candy Bedworth 1 June 2023

Artist Stories

Stroll Through Paris with Edward Hopper

Edward Hopper is known as one of the premier recorders of American mid-century life. Or mid-century malaise might be a better way to put it:...

Louisa Mahoney 22 May 2023

Jean-François Millet, The Gleaners, 1857, Musée d'Orsay, Paris, France Artist Stories

Jean Francois Millet: The Peasant Painter

French artist Jean Francois Millet painted some the world’s best known artworks of peasants toiling in rural landscapes. Explore his life and work!

Candy Bedworth 12 April 2023

Élisabeth Louise Vigée Le Brun, Self Portrait in a Straw Hat, 1782, National Gallery, London, UK. Detail. Artist Stories

Élisabeth Vigée Le Brun Travels Across Europe

Élisabeth Vigée Le Brun was a French portrait painter working in the late 18th and early 19th centuries. While her subject matter and color palette...

Natalia Iacobelli 16 April 2023