Francisco de Goya facts for kids
Quick facts for kids
Francisco Goya
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| Born |
Francisco José de Goya y Lucientes
March 30, 1746 Fuendetodos, Aragon, Spain
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| Died | April 16, 1828 (aged 82) Bordeaux, France
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| Nationality | Spanish |
| Known for | Painting, drawing |
| Movement | Romanticism |
Francisco de Goya y Lucentes (March 30, 1746 – April 30, 1828) was a Spanish painter. He painted many portraits of the Spanish Royal Family. His most famous paintings are Charles IV of Spain and His Family and The Third of May 1808. He regularly painted the famous Duchess of Alba.
Contents
Life
Youth
Goya was born and spent his childhood in Fuendetodos, in the region of Aragón, Spain. His parents were José Benito de Goya y Franque and Gracia de Lucientes y Salvador. His father's work was gilding (putting gold onto picture frames). In about 1749, the family moved to a house in the city of Zaragoza. Goya went to school at Escuelas Pias and became best friends with Martin Zapater. They wrote many letters to each other throughout their lives, which is where historians get much of the information about Goya's life. When he was 14, Goya became an apprentice to the painter José Luzán.
Goya later moved to Madrid where he studied with Anton Raphael Mengs, a painter who was popular with Spanish royalty. Goya and Mengs did not like each other, and Goya got bad grades in his examinations. Goya tried to join the Spanish Royal Academy of Fine Art in 1763 and 1766 but failed.
He then traveled to Rome. In 1771, he won second prize in a painting competition in the city of Parma. Later that year, he returned to Zaragoza. He got work painting frescos in several buildings including the dome of the Basilica of the Pillar. He studied with the painter Francisco Bayeu, a famous painter in Madrid. His painting began to show the style which later made him famous.
Success
Goya married Bayeu's sister, Josefa, in 1774. Because Francisco Bayeu, Goya's new brother-in-law, was a member of the Spanish Royal Academy of Fine Art, this helped Goya to get work with the Royal Tapestry Workshop. He worked there for 5 years and designed 42 patterns. Many of his designs were made into tapestries and used to decorate the bare stone walls of the royal palaces, such as El Escorial. The Spanish Royal family saw his works and later gave him work as a portrait painter. He also painted an altarpiece (Holy picture) for the Church of San Francisco El Grande. This picture made Goya a member of the Spanish Royal Academy of Art at last.
In 1783, the Count of Floridablanca commissioned Goya (paid him) to paint his portrait. Then King Charles III of Spain and other important people wanted Goya to paint their portraits. Goya became friends with Crown Prince Don Luis and lived in his house. From 1788, in the reign of Charles IV, Goya became even more popular.
Later life
In the 1790s, Goya became ill. It is not known exactly what his illness was. Historians believe that he suffered a mental breakdown, had viral encephalitis, or several strokes. He may have suffered from dementia. They also think that he may have been poisoned by lead paint. His sight, hearing, balance, and mental health were all affected. From the 1790s onward, he began to paint pictures showing sad, violent subjects. His unhappiness was also affected by the French invasion of Spain in 1808. One of his most famous paintings, The Third of May 1808, is about the execution of Spanish men trying to defend their country.
After the defeat of the French, Goya did not get along well with King Ferdinand VII. Goya moved to a house far away from the court. He lived there with his housekeeper and her daughter, Rosario Weiss, where he taught her painting. He died in 1828 at the age of 82.
Paintings
Goya's early pictures for the royal tapestries are happy scenes of festivals in bright colors.
Goya painted portraits of many famous people, including the Duke of Wellington. His paintings of the Royal Family of Charles IV of Spain and Ferdinand VII show them looking like ordinary people, not like proud nobility. Queen Maria Luisa was delighted with the large portrait that he did of her family in 1800.
In 1793 and 1794, Goya was recovering from his illness. During this time, he painted eleven small pictures on tin. These pictures are known as Fantasy and Invention today. They show a change in his art. From that time on, he painted dark, frightening pictures about war, violence, and madness.
One painting is called Courtyard with Lunatics. It is a scene in a mental asylum. It is about loneliness and fear. It shows how mentally ill people have trouble dealing with other people and normal life. Goya was the first artist to paint people with mental illness in a realistic way.
Goya's most frightening picture shows a giant man eating a person. It is now called Saturn Devouring His Sons, (after Saturn the father of the gods in Greek mythology) but no one knows what it really means. It is more likely a picture of the way that war destroys people. In the house that Goya owned, there are paintings on the walls known as the Black Paintings. Historians are not sure whether Goya really painted them.
Influence
Goya's brightly colored tapestries influenced the French Impressionist painters such as Monet and Renoir. His portraits were an influence on Manet and Degas as well as Renoir. The Black Paintings influenced Expressionist painters.
Francisco de Goya quotes
- "I see only forms that are lit up and forms that are not. There is only light and shadow."
- "The one thing that always follows the creation of beauty is destruction."
- "The great art of life is sensation, to feel that we exist, even in pain."
- "The purpose of art is washing the dust of daily life off our souls."
Interesting facts about Francisco de Goya
- During his life, Goya suffered from mental and physical health issues, such as deafness and severe anxiety.
- Goya married sister the sister of Francisco and Ramón Bayeu, who were famous painters in Madrid.
- Despite being known for his remarkable talent and contributions to the arts, he actually began his career as a court portraitist and gained favor from the Spanish royal family.
- Realism was not popular during his time, yet Goya painted people as they were.
- Goya said that nature, Velázquez, and Rembrandt were his main influences.
- Goya had a turning point in his personal life and artistic style after a severe illness known as "the mysterious illness of Bordeaux" in 1793.
- Goya's most famous series of paintings, called "The Black Paintings," were a collection of 14 haunting and unsettling works created on the walls of his own home between 1819 and 1823.
- During his lifetime, Goya was criticized because of his bold style of art.
- In his lifetime, Francisco Goya created over one hundred etchings.
Images for kids
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Portrait of Josefa Bayeu (1747–1812)
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The Parasol, 1777
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Charles IV of Spain and His Family, 1800–01
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The Family of the Infante Don Luis, 1784. Magnani-Rocca, Parma
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Portrait of Manuel Godoy, 1801. Real Academia de Bellas Artes de San Fernando
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The Sleep of Reason Produces Monsters, c. 1797, 21.5 cm × 15 cm (8.5 in × 5.9 in)
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Witches' Sabbath or Aquelarre is one of 14 from the Black Paintings series.
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The Milkmaid of Bordeaux, 1825–27, is the third and final Goya portrait which may depict Leocadia Weiss.
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The Third of May 1808, 1814. Oil on canvas, 266 cm × 345 cm (105 in × 136 in). Museo del Prado, Madrid
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The Second of May 1808, 1814
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Plate 4: Las mujeres dan valor (The women are courageous). This plate depicts a struggle between a group of civilians fighting soldiers.
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Plate 5: Y son fieras (And they are fierce or And they fight like wild beasts). Civilian women fight against soldiers with spears and rocks.
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Plate 47: Así sucedió (This is how it happened). The last print in the first group. Murdered monks lie by French soldiers looting church treasures.
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See also
In Spanish: Francisco de Goya para niños
