Francisco Goya was a painter and printer par excellence, belonging to the era of Spanish Romanticism. Considered both the last of the old Masters as well as the first of the modern school, he proved a big inspiration for countless artists of subsequent generations. Appointed a court painter by Spanish royalty, his portraiture, figurative drawings and printmaking documented significant events during the late 18th century and early 19th century Spain. He is especially famous for his daring and emotive works depicting the violent Napoleonic Spanish invasion.
He began his apprenticeship at the age of 14 under Jose Luzan, a local tutor, under whom young Goya practiced long, copying prints of the art of the Old Masters as was the custom of the times. He left for Madrid and acquainted himself with Francisco Bayeu, the court painter who was to exert a major influence on his early painting style. Goya was also influenced significantly by the German artist Anton Taphael Mengs, who helped him, get his first commission of fresco decoration of the Church of the Virgin in El Pilar in Zaragoza, which was the first of his many frescos, including perhaps his greatest fresco ever for the Church of San Antonio de la Florida, Madrid. King Charles III commissioned Goya for a series of royal portraits around 1786.
Blessed with keen observation powers, Goya engaged himself in sketching scenes of daily life, however after an illness that left him deaf, he became isolated from the people around him and withdrawing into his imagination, evolved a new style of satirical and caricature painting that often included macabre depictions, as exemplified by his 13-painting series “Fantasy and Invention” that were executed when Goya was recuperating from a nervous breakdown.
Goya captured the dreadfulness of war in his paintings, “The Second of May, 1808” and “Third of May”, both portraying the atrocities on his countrymen by the French. The broad and bold brushwork in dark colors are typical of his style. His portraits are exceptional for being honest and realistic quite unlike the idealism professed by his contemporaries. After 1815, Goya almost became a recluse, disappearing from public life and becoming increasingly introverted; his works became more expressive as can be observed from his “Black Paintings” – a collection of 14 large murals, including the well-known “Saturn Devouring One of His Children”, that shows an astonishing world of black pretense and imagination.
Goya’s works span more than 6 decades and with the passage of time, he became more bitter and cynical of the world around him that was rapidly changing; Goya’s works are largely expressions of these frustrations. Following political turmoil in Spain, he went into exile in France in 1824 and worked there till he breathed his last at the age of 82. Considered to be among the three foremost Spanish artists, along with Velazquez and Picasso, his dramatic execution that preceded Expressionism profoundly influenced 19th century French fine art.
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