Francisco de Goya was born on March 30, 1746. He was considered by many to be the most important artist of both the end of the 18th and the beginning of the 19th, and during his life, he served three Spanish Kings.
Goya spent his formative years in Saragossa studying under José Luzán Martínez. During these four years, Goya spent the majority of his time copying prints, a common practice in those times used to perfect drawing skills. In 1764 and again in 1766, Goya entered the Real Academia de Bellas Artes de San Fernando in Madrid, but after failing both times, he traveled to Rome. There, he studied Rome’s celebrated paintings and was influenced by the use of oils, tempera and fresco in the paintings he studied.
After marrying Josefa Bayeu, Goya was given a position in the Real Fábrica de Tapices de Santa Bárbara. There he painted large oil-on-canvas cartoons from which royal tapestries would be made. As prints of paintings were in demand, Goya began to offer for sale his prints of paintings by Diego Velázquez, while also offering his own original etchings. By the 1770’s Goya became increasingly popular as a portrait painter. By 1775, Goya was deputy director of the Real Academia and shortly thereafter, her was appointed Pintor del Rey (Painter of the King), and was charged with painting the royal family.
During this time, Goya became ill and, although he recuperated, he lost his hearing from the illness. During and after his recuperation, he continued to paint various works. Between 1797 and 1805, Goya painted two companion pieces Naked Maja and Clothed Maja. In 1815, Goya was called before the Spanish Inquisition because of these two works. The Spanish Inquisition prohibited depiction of the nude female form and had to decide whether to censure Goya and the owner of the painting. However, Goya escaped the situation without penalty.
Goya died April 16, 1828. During his life he produced about 700 paintings, 900 drawings, and almost 300 prints, all of which represented the rapidly changing world in which Goya found himself.
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ARTISTIC GENRE
Stylistically, Goya’s work spans from the late Rococo to Romanticism and later, Impressionism. He painted what he was surrounded by: the Bourbon Spain of Charles III, the reign of Charles IV, the Enlightenment, The French occupation of Spain, the Penninsular War, the reign of Ferdinand VII, the Inquisition, and the few years of Spain’s constitutional government.
After 1780 Goya asserted his artistic independence. Goya’s paintings Death of St Joseph, SS Bernard and Robert and St. Lutgard, which were commissioned for church in Valladolid, were classical and muted in form and mood. Meanwhile, the work that was commissioned for a Cathedral in Valencia included Goya’s first depictions of netherworld creatures and dramatic scenes of an exorcism.
Also by 1780, Goya was becoming a well-known portrait painter. In his portraits of the royal family, Goya was known for his sympathetic renditions of the family members. An important example of his royal portraits is called Charles III Dressed as a Hunter. In this portrait, he depicts that King as ruddy-faced, affable and homely, something that was not done in those times. Usually, the portrait artist was very flattering when painting a member of the royal family.
Between 1793 and 1800, Goya produced works that showed that he was heavily aware of the themes presented in Romantic literature and art. Such paintings include The Deluge(1793-4), The Madhouse(1794) and Fire at Night(1793-4).
One very important royal portrait, done in 1800, is Family of Charles IV. In this portrait, as in Velázquez’s Las Meninas, the artist is inserted into the left foreground of the painting. This portrait is very important because, Goya uses lighting and positioning to focus attention on the most powerful person in the royal family, the Queen, relegating the King to much less important position. This painting shows Goya’s respect for and strict adherence to the truth and to nature.
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