Francisco De Goya

Francisco de Goya was born in Fuendetodos, Spain on March 30, 1746. His dad was a painter, and his mom came from a noble family. Theres not a lot

of information about his childhood. He went to school in Zaragoza at the Escuelas Pias. He started his actual art education when he was 14, when he was chosen to be an apprentice to Jose Luzan. Who was a talented but little known painter. Francisco spent 4 years apprenticing with Jose Luzan.

Francisco went to Madrid in 1763 because he hoped to win a prize at the Academy of san Fernando. He ended up not winning but he did meet Francisco Bayeu. He had a great affect on Francisco Goya's early style of painting, he also was responsible for Goya's participation in the fresco decoration of the Church of the Virgin in El Pilar in Zaragoza.

Goya returned to Spain about 1773 and participated in several other fresco projects, including that for the Charterhouse of Aula Dei, near Zaragoza, in 1774. There paintings prefigure those of his greatest fresco project, which was executed in the Church of San Antonio de la Florida, Madrid, in 1798. It was during this time that Goya began to do prints after paintings by Velбzquez, who would remain, along with Rubens and Rembrandt, Goya’s greatest source of inspiration.

By 1786 Goya was working in an official capacity for King Charles III, certainly the most enlightened Spanish monarch of the 18th century. Goya was appointed "first court painter" in 1799. His tapestry cartoons executed in the late 1780s and early 1790s were highly praised for their candid views of everyday Spanish life. Goya revolutionised the tapestry industry with these cartoons, which had slavishly reproduced the Flemish genre scenes of the 17th-century painter David Teniers.

Some of Goya's most beautiful portraits date from this period. Many are of his of his friends, members of the court, and the nobility. Works during this period also show that Goya was strongly influenced by the English School which was fathered by Van Dyck.

In the winter of 1792, Goya contracted a serious disease while on a visit to southern Spain. It left him totally deaf and marked a turning point in his career. A mood of pessimism entered Goya's work. Between 1797 and 1799 he drew and etched the first of his great print series The Caprices, which mock the social mores and superstitions of the time. Later came other series, such as Disasters of War, 1810 and Absurdities, 1820-1823, which present more caustic commentaries on the ills and follies of humanity. The horrors of warfare were of great concern to Goya, who observed firsthand