Francisco Goya y Lucientes - Buy or sell works
30 March 1746, Fuendetodos/Zaragoza (Spain) - 16 April 1828, Bordeaux (France)
Francisco José de Goya y Lucientes is considered a pioneer on the threshold of modernism who had far-reaching influence on the development of 19th-century European painting. His extensive oeuvre includes portraits, genre paintings, landscapes, religious and mythological scenes as well as political caricatures.
The artist, who came from Spanish landed gentry, began his artistic career in Zaragoza, where he was apprenticed to the workshop of local painter José Luzán. He later moved to Madrid to continue his studies and travelled to Italy - including Rome - which had a lasting influence on his early artistic development. On his return to Spain, Goya began to gain recognition for his work, initially as a painter of cartoons for the Royal Carpet Manufactories.
In 1786, Goya was appointed court painter, and over the years he produced numerous portraits of the Spanish nobility and royal family, which cemented his reputation as the leading portraitist of his time and provided him with financial security. Based on the mature works of Velazquez, his works from this period are characterised by their realism and psychological depth.
Subsequently, his painting moved towards an expressive, technical abstraction based on synthetically powerful brushstrokes. As a graphic artist, Goya created the 80-sheet "Caprichos" from 1796 to 1798; this series marked the beginning of his international fame. Like the works of William Hogarth in England, these sheets are satirical and moralistic, and the figures are rendered in a new kind of naturalism.
The French invasion of Spain and the subsequent War of Independence (1808-1814) had a profound influence on Goya and his work. His famous series of etchings "Desastres de la Guerra" (1810-1813), which depict the horrors and human suffering of war with harrowing directness, were created during this period. In contrast to the monumental painting "El tres de Mayo" in which a white-shirted insurgent with his arms torn apart throws himself at the executioners' bullets, the series of etchings lacks any heroic gestures.
Goya suffered from health problems in his later years, which led to an increasingly gloomy and visionary quality in his works. Among his most famous late works are the "Pinturas negras", a series of murals painted directly on the walls of his country house, the Quinta del Sordo. These paintings, which were later transferred to canvas, are as experimental as they are shocking.
Disappointed by the political developments in Spain, Goya moved to Bordeaux in France in 1824, where he continued to work until his death in 1828. Despite his advanced age, he continued to experiment with new techniques, including lithography.