Francisco Goya

Self-portrait (1795)

The rape of Europa (El rapto de Europa), 1772

La Familia de Carlos IV (Charles IV of Spain and His Family), 1800

Francisco José de Goya y Lucientes (30 March 1746 – 16 April 1828) was a Spanish painter and printmaker. He was a court painter to the Spanish Crown and a chronicler of history. Goya has been regarded both as the last of the old masters and as the first of the moderns. The subversive and subjective element in his art as well as his bold handling of paint provided a model for the work of later generations of artists, notably Édouard Manet and Pablo Picasso.

Quotes

The sleep of reason produces monsters.

• I have now established an enviable way of living, and if anyone wants anything from me they must come to me.
  • In his letter to Don Martín Zapater y Clavería, signed and dated Madrid, 1 August 1786, location: Pierpont Morgan Library Dept. of Literary and Historical Manuscripts
  • in June 1786 Goya was appointed painter to the Spanish king Charles III, the most prestigious position for an artist in Spain; the title, as Goya emphasized in this letter, came with a steady income and the charge to produce designs for the royal tapestry factory.

• I haven't heard them [n.d.r. he's talking about some folk songs] and probably never shall because I no longer go to the places where one could hear them, for I have got into my head that I should maintain a certain presence and air for dignity... ...that a man should have, and you can imagine that I'm not very happy about it.
  • from Letter 206, c. 1787; in Goya, A life in Letters, edited and introduced by Sarah Simmons; translations by Philip Troutman, London, Pimlico, 2004
  • Goya understands that the social role he has reached (he is royal painter from 1789) will prevent him from attending places where people sing

• ...a set of cabinet pictures in which I have managed to make observations for which there is normally no opportunity in commissioned works which give no scope for fantasy and invention.
  • as quoted by Tim Hilton, in 'Exhibitions: Something wicked this way comes: Two shows, one of small works by Goya, the other a series of religious paintings by Francisco de Zurbaran...', in The Independent, 20 March 1994, retrieved 30 January, 2010
  • The series of pictures 'Caprichos' really begin after a crisis in Goya's life, his physical and probably mental breakdown in 1792. He was 46, and thereafter deaf until his death in 1828, according to Tim hilton.

• [the painting 'Yard with Lunatics' shows] ...a yard with lunatics, and two of them fighting completely naked while their warder beats them, and others in sacks; (it is a scene I witnessed at Zaragoza).
  • In a letter to his friend Bernardo de Yriarte, 1794; as quoted by Jane Kromm, in The art of frenzy, 2002, p. 194
  • The painting 'Yard with Lunatics' (Spanish: Corral de locos) is a small oil-on-tinplate painting completed by Goya between 1793 and 1794; Goya said that the painting was informed by scenes of institutions Goya witnessed as a youth in Zaragoza, according to Tim Hilton, 'in The Independent', 20 March 1994

• The sleep of reason produces monsters.
• El sueño de la razón produce monstruos.
  • Caption, plate 43 of Los Caprichos (1799)

Quotes about Goya

• The noises in his head and deafness aren't improving, yet his vision is much better and he is back in control of his balance.
  • quote by a contemporary, c. 1792-93; as quoted by w:Siri Hustvedt (10 August 2006). Mysteries of the Rectangle: Essays on Painting. Princeton Architectural Press, p. 63. ISBN 978-1-56898-618-0.

• [because Goya was] the stepping stone between the Old Masters and the Great Moderns like Cézanne.
  • Duncan Phillips, explaining why he collected Francisco Goya in his Philip Collection