Wanderlust Collective

Inside the Mind of

Francisco Goya Lucientes

Oct 19/ by The Wanderlust Collective /Art, Artist Spotlight, Goya, Inspiration, Motivation

What prompted me to write about Goya was my trip to Madrid Spain, this was right before the Covid shutdown. I walked into Plaza Major and saw these beautiful costumes of the bull fighters and Flamenco dancers. Right away I thought, what did these dancers look like back in the day? Growing up we had a beautiful portrait of a Flamenco dancer holding a fan in our dining room. I remember staring at the painting from time to time wondering what she was like.

When I researched, I found that Francisco Goya was one of the most affluent artists in Madrid in the late 1800s. Goya’s work was sought after by the royal families of the day. At the age of 40 he was appointed painter to King Charles III, and in 1789 was promoted court painter under the new Charles IV. In addition to his commissioned portraits he created works that showed the social and political problems of his time.

Francisco learned by imitating works of the great masters. He copied Diego Rodriguez de Silva y Velazquez, and Rembrandt. He wanted to further his art education so in 1770 he traveled to Italy.

Rembrandt

Velazquez

Goya started to create works for Spain’s royal daily with the help of a German artist named Anton Raphael Mengs. He painted tapestry cartoons, which were pieces that served as models for woven tapestries for a factory in Madrid. In these pieces he depicted scenes from everyday life.

He married Josefa Bayeu in 1773, unfortunately they had a difficult life together shadowed by constant miscarriages and pregnancies. They only had one child, a son who survived until adulthood. Josefa died in 1812.

In 1779 Goya established his reputation as a portrait artist, he won commissions from many royal circles. He became completely deaf after suffering from an unknown sickness. He worked on paintings during recovery, including portraits of women from different walks of life.

Goya never ignored the suffering of the Spanish people and it showed in his work. In 1799 he created a series of etchings called “Los Caprichos”, meaning follies. These etchings were viewed as his comments on social and political views. He made 80 prints and they showed the repression, greed and corruption of the time that was rampant in the country.

“Fantasy, abandoned by reason, produces impossible monsters; united with it, she is the mother of the arts and the origin of marvels.”

Francisco Goya Lucientes

Little is known about Goya’s later years. He moved to a farmhouse outside of Madrid. La Quinta del Sordo (The House of the Deaf Man) where he finished 14 artworks called Black Paintings. He painted them directly on the house walls.

In Francisco’s final years he still worked for the Spanish court. He expressed his discontent with Ferdinand VII's rule by making a series of etchings called “Los disparates", which means nonsense. In these pieces he showed a carnival theme and showed old age, suffering, lust and death among other issues. His grotesque images seemed to show the ridiculousness of the times. Things became so uncertain because of the political climate that Goya disappeared in 1824.

Even though he was very sick, he thought he would be safer with his maid, his companion Leocadia Weissand her daughter outside of Spain. He still continued to paint, and these works included paintings of his friends who were also living in exile. He died in Bordeaux, France in 1828.

He will always be remembered as an influential artist who inspired generations of artists after him. One such artist Salvador Dali, who also painted his version of the Caprichos framed in the 21st century life.