Francisco Goya
The painter and printmaker Francisco Goya lived through tumultuous times in Spain’s history, a fact that is reflected in his life and work. Goya pursued parallel tracks as a commissioned painter for royalty, and as a creator of un-commissioned and unconventional art. He spent his early years trying to gain admittance to art schools, as well as traveling. In the mid 1770s he returned to the northern Spanish city of Saragoza, where he met and married Josefa Bayeu, sister of the director of the San Fernando Academy, Francisco Bayeu. Probably through this relationship he was granted a commission to paint designs for the Royal Tapestry Factory of Santa Barbara; his patronage work would continue for the rest of his life. In 1779 he was named court painter by Charles III, and again by Charles IV in 1789. At the same time, he began working on engravings of well-known Spanish painters. In 1792 Goya became very ill and lost his hearing. This debilitating event probably influenced his subsequent darker etchings, as did his exasperation with traditional conventions of art patronage in Europe. The series Los Caprichos came out around 1798, and depicted scenes of witchcraft, folk traditions, bullfighting, and anti-clerical social satire. When Napoleon’s brother Joseph Bonaparte took the throne of Spain, Goya pledged his allegiance. At the same time, he produced another series of etchings – Los Desastres – that depicted the horrors of war. Other important work includes Los Proverbios (1815) and Tauromachia (1816). In 1819 Goya purchased a villa and painted frescos on the walls, known as the "Black Paintings" because of their dark and mythical subject matter. Fed up with the political situation in Spain and in declining health, Goya moved to Bordeaux, France in 1824 where he began working in lithography until his death in 1828.
