Francisco José de Goya y Lucientes (1746âÂÂ1828) was a Spanish artist, now viewed as one of the leaders of the artistic movement Romanticism. He produced around 700 paintings, 280 prints, and several thousand drawings.
Goya's early career as a painter in the court of Charles III is marked by portraits of the Spanish aristocracy and tapestry cartoons in a Rococo style. Continuing to produce official portraits and paintings for the courts of Charles IV and Ferdinand VII, Goya's middle period is also notable for print series that satirize the human condition and show the brutalities of war.
Towards the end of his life, Goya created the enigmatic Black Paintings, applying oil paint directly onto the plaster walls of his house on the outskirts of Madrid.
Due to the demand for Goya's works since the 19th century, there is a large number of works falsely attributed to the artist in museums around the world and in private collections. Following the interpretation of Goya made by the French Romantics (later extended to Spain and the rest of the world), many 19th century painters such as Leonardo Alenza or Eugenio Lucas Velázquez produced works of low quality that they deliberately passed off as âÂÂGoyasâ imitating his later style, emphasizing his grotesque and phantasmagoric facet, and using a loose brushstroke and blurred figures. Other attributions are more delicate to distinguish, some being due to the hand of Goya's contemporary AgustÃÂn Esteve.
Among the most relevant exhibitions are the retrospective exhibition Goya en la Beyeler Foundation in 2020-2021, and Goya. Drawings: "Only my Strength of Will Remains" at the Museo del Prado in 2019, which celebrated the 200th anniversary of the museum's creation.
see also: List of Francisco Goya's tapestry cartoons
As well as paintings Goya was also one of the greatest ever printmakers. He produced several sets of prints using the relatively new technique of aquatint. Towards the end of his life Goya also began to experiment with lithography. The dimensions given refer to the size of the printed image rather than the paper that the image is printed on.