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Francisco Goya (1746 - 1828)

Francisco Goya (1746 - 1828)

By Paul Dunwell, writing for EasyFrame
© Copyright EasyFrame 2020

What this article is about

Francisco José de Goya y Lucientes was a Spanish painter and printmaker with a larger-than-life character that suited a romantic. He had a long and successful career in the late 18th and early 19th centuries, and is famous for documenting the politics and conflicts of his era. Working before photography, he brought events to life for the masses in a way words couldn't. For that alone he is widely regarded as the most influential Spanish artist of the period.

Goya is also associated with the 'rococo' style, a late form of baroque that favours asymmetrical patterns, scrollwork and motifs. Like the Frenchman Delacroix, he has a claim to be the last of the 'Old Masters'. What is indisputable is that he was one of the best portrait painters of his time. Not bad for somebody initially rejected by art school!

A portrait of Goya by Vicente López Portaña and Goya's 'Self-portrait with Dr Arrieta' — Left: Goya in 1826, 2 years before his death, painted by fellow artist Vicente López Portaña. Right: ‘Self-portrait with Dr Arrieta’ (1820), in which he is being pressed to take medicine.

Goya's youth and early influences

Goya came from Aragon, just south of the Pyrenees. His father, José Benito de Goya y Franque, was a gilder, a craftsman who worked with precious metals. His mother was Gracia de Lucientes y Salvador. The family was lower-middle-class, though the little house in rural Fuendetodos where he was first raised rather grandly bore a coat of arms from his mother's side. When he was three they moved to a home in the city of Zaragoza. By then there were six children, of whom Francisco was the fourth. He got free schooling, presumably on merit, at the Escuelas Pías de San Antón.

Goya's 'The Third of May 1808', showing a firing squad executing prisoners at night — ‘The Third of May 1808’ is perhaps Goya’s most famous work. It shows the execution in Madrid of Spanish patriots who had defied Napoleon during the Peninsular War. The subject was revolutionary, and so was the way he painted it.

From the age of 14 he studied under José Luzán y Martinez, a prestigious baroque painter and, as it happens, another gilder's son. Luzán had studied in Naples, worked for Philip V of Spain and briefly directed the Academy of Painting and Sculpture in Zaragoza. Goya apparently quit after four years of being left to copy prints.

He moved to Madrid, where he was taught by Anton Raphael Mengs, a German painter who worked in Dresden, Rome, London and Madrid. Mengs was a rococo artist, but is credited with moving art towards neoclassicism.

Goya submitted work to the Real Academia de Bellas Artes de San Fernando in 1763 and again in 1766. Both times it was rejected. He got in later. He married Josefa Bayeu, sister of the Aragonese artist Francisco Bayeu, who was already a member. Sometimes it comes down to who you know! Five years after the second rejection he won second prize in a competition in Parma.

He was also influenced by the Italian engraver Marcantonio Raimondi and by his fellow Spaniard Velázquez, since he copied the work of both.

The larger-than-life reputation

Goya certainly lived an eventful life. The truth is hard to establish, but he is credited by some with running off to Rome with a troupe of bullfighters, trying to elope with a beautiful nun, having an affair with the Duchess of Alba and working as an acrobat.

Goya's 'The Duchess of Alba' and 'The Family of Charles IV' — Left: ‘The Duchess of Alba’ (1797), with whom Goya was thought to have had an affair. Right: ‘The Family of Charles IV’ (1800) puts the king to one side and his wife, María Luisa of Parma, in the centre, suggesting it was she who wore the trousers.

Physical and mental illness

Goya's long life was blighted by ill health. In his early 40s an undiagnosed illness affected his hearing, his balance and more. It may have been lead poisoning from the white paint he used. Later he had strokes, and he seems to have suffered a serious mental decline. He was certainly afraid of death, and much of his later work is deeply disturbing.

Goya's 'Saturn Devouring His Son' and 'The Great He-Goat' — Left: ‘Saturn Devouring His Son’, in which Saturn eats his child to defeat a prophecy that a son would be his downfall. Right: ‘The Great He-Goat’, a witches’ coven. Both of these so-called ‘black paintings’ date from 1820 to 1823, when the artist was gravely unwell.

Finding favour

Goya's early patrons included the Duke and Duchess of Osuna, for whom he painted portraits, groups, landscapes and more. He was active through the reigns of Charles III, Charles IV and Ferdinand VII, and of Joseph I, Napoleon's brother, who interrupted Ferdinand's reign. He became a court painter only in 1789, at 43, under Charles IV. Having painted for Joseph blotted his copybook a little with the restored Ferdinand. He painted many other royals, including the Infante Don Luis, the king's brother, and Charles III.

Subject matter and scale

After his strokes Goya was restricted to smaller work, but early in his career he made his name with designs for large tapestries. He painted many portraits and family groups, religious paintings, allegories, disturbing cartoons and even the odd nude, which was very daring at the time.

Goya's 'The Naked Maja' — ‘The Naked Maja’ (late 18th century) was commissioned by the hated Prime Minister Manuel de Godoy and is said to show his mistress, Pepita Tudó. It was later confiscated by the Spanish Inquisition, and Goya was in big trouble until he convinced investigators that others had painted this sort of nude before.

Conclusion

Goya spans the gap between the world of the old masters and the makers of modern art, which began in the 1860s. You can buy unframed Goya prints easily and affordably. Try www.redbubble.com/shop/francisco+goya+prints, for example.

You'll want to frame whatever you buy. Any good framers will show you a range of solutions and advise on what suits the work and where it will hang. EasyFrame is on 01234 856 501 and sales@EasyFrame.co.uk, and they'll always chat even if you don't want to buy!

Two aquatint etchings by Goya — Goya was a fine printmaker too, and produced scores of aquatint etchings, a technique that gives tones without lines. Left: ‘Here Comes the Bogey-Man’ (1797-1799), in which a woman has the bogeyman Coco frighten her children. Right: ‘Unhappy Mother!’ (1810-1820), from the ‘Disasters of War’ series on the atrocities and misery Goya had often seen for himself.

Article Posted: 27/10/2020 10:21:25