Francisco de Goya

painting by Goya

  Francisco José de Goya y Lucientes (1746-1828) was a Spanish painter and etcher, born in Fuentetodos, in the province of Aragon, and studied for a time at Saragossa. He proceeded to Madrid at the age of 19, but was soon traveling with a troupe of bull-fighters, ultimately finding his way to Italy, where he apparently settled down to study his art once more. In 1771 he returned to Saragossa, where he remained for four years, painting frescoes in the cathedral and elsewhere. He then went again to Ma¬drid, where the cartoons he designed for tapestries soon won him great admiration. In 1786 he was estabished as a Court painter, producing his astonishingly truthful and revealing series of royal portraits. His work during this period includes his fine portrait of the Duchess of Alva, who seems to have been his close friend. He spent his later years at Bordeaux.