Was born in Fuente de Todos, Zaragoza (Saragossa) on 30 March 1746. He was the son of Jose Goya, a goldsmith, and Gracia Lucientes. He attended drawing classes at the Economic Society of Zaragoza and in 1760 the Count of Fuentes, the protector of Fuente de Todos, helped him enter the studio of the painter Don Jose Luzan as an apprentice. There he met the Bayen brothers who were also painters.
In 1763 he travelled to Madrid to the triennial contest of the Royal Academy of San Francisco, where he was defeated. After three years, he again travelled to the capital and presented himself in the Contest of the Academy, only to be defeated once more by the Bayen. He travelled to Italy, always in search of academic success. From there he sent a painting, “Hannibal in the Alps”, to the French Academy and won the second prize.
Again in Zaragoza, he was commissioned with painting the frescoes of the Dome of the Coreto del Pilar as well as a series of oil paintings for the Cartuja del Aula Dei near the city. During the summer of 1773 he married Josefa Bayen, the sister of his painter friends.
They had economic problems and so he went to work at the studio of his eldest brother-in-law who had been appointed the painter of the King and Scholar of San Francisco. Towards 1775 he obtained his first official commission (it is thought that his brother-in-law may have interceded). This consisted of some cartoons for the Royal Company of Tapestries of Santa Barbara, directed by Mengs, and destined to decorate the place where the royal princes ate in the Royal Palace of El Escorial. With these works he managed to enter the Royal Palace of Madrid where there were paintings of the artists that he most admired, Rembrandt and Velazquez. From Rembrandt there was “Artemisa” ( Prado Museum ) and from Velazquez there were 40 canvasses, and by royal decree, he reproduced 18 of them in etched plates in 1778. These masters had been outstanding in their painting from an aerial perspective, not only with objects that were degraded by the effect of chiaroscuro because of the atmosphere that separated them in the distance, but because of the nature of the air that filled it with light and passed between the bodies and illuminated them - even in those places where the rays of light do not touch them directly - allowing objects to be distinguished from the darkness itself and showing the distance that existed between one and another. The young artist soon found a place among the Madrid society, which admired his paintings of tradition and his portraits.
In 1779 he was presented at the palace with four paintings which the King liked very much and which pleased the Princes even more. The following year he entered the Royal Academy of Fine Arts of San Fernando as a member. The theme of his presentation was “Christ” ( Prado Museum ). One of his new colleagues, the architect Ventura Rodriguez, presented him to Don Luis (the brother of the King) who loved to hunt, and so Goya was invited to the Palace of Arena in San Pedro. There he was a complete success, not only as a painter - where he made various portraits of the members of the royal family - but also as a hunter. He left time aside to allow himself the possibility of attending the tertulias at the house of the Countess of Osuna where politics, fashion, art and literature were constantly discussed in the salons.
Bull-fighting, music and theatre were the preferred subjects, not only in this salon but also at the salon of the Duchess de Alba. In 1784 the Church of San Francisco the Great was inaugurated in Madrid amid great success and with it came the success of one of Goya`s painting, “San Bernardino”. In 1785 he was appointed sub-director of the Academy of San Fernando and began a long series of paintings for the House of Osuna, including various portraits of the dukes. The following year he was appointed Painter to the King and completed seven paintings for the Alameda of Osuna. When Carlos III died in 1789, Carlos IV became King and Goya was appointed Painter to the Chamber.
For two years he dedicated himself to finishing the cartoons for the Royal Factory of Tapestries.
In 1792 he became gravely ill in Cadiz and as a result he was left partially deaf - something that would continue to worsen as the years passed. As he overcame the illness he painted a series of 11 paintings for the Academy of San Fernando.
From then onwards and due to his partial deafness, and although still cultivating his aristocratic friends, he started to attend, each afternoon, the meetings at the Academy, where each time more and more men dedicated to literature began to go.
Despite his serious hearing inability he was able to enjoy the conversations of his friends, which was proven by a drawing with 16 caricatures.
These had their origin in Leonardo and show the physiognomical similarities that exist between man and animal. It was the moment that there was great discussion about the “scientific” way to discover the personality of a person by trying to find an analogy with the faces of some animals which were considered incarnations of different temperaments. From this scientific interest of Goya we are left with four drawings in ink made at the end of the XVIIIth century that are in the Prado Museum.
In 1794 he started to sketch his “Caprichos”. By this time his deafness was almost total but he continued to paint and made the portrait of “La Tirana”. A year later, and on account of the death of his friend Francisco Bayen, Goya became the Director of the Academy. In 1795 he made the portrait of the Duchess de Alba and wrote to a friend narrating how she had entered his workshop to achieve this and that later on he was thinking of painting her entirely (after finishing with a painting he was doing of the Duke of Alcucia). Whether the former painting was ever carried out is unknown, but today there still exists the rough draft of the Duke at the Wildenstein art Gallery in Buenos Aires. In 1797 he accompanied the Duchess de Alba, by then a widow, on a trip around Andalucia. Upon returning he painted the frescoes of San Antonio de la Florida. The following year he published a series of etchings “Los Caprichos”, and reflected in them the vices and sophisticated superstitions of society. The caprice “The Dream of Reason produces Monsters”, is only one of these and it is numbered 43.
In 1800 Goya painted the family of Carlos IV and the portrait of the Countess of Chinchon. In 1808, in response to the pressure of Napoleon who invaded Spain, Carlos IV abdicated in favor of his son Fernando VII. A little later and in the presence of Napoleon himself, both Bourbons abdicated in favour of Joseph Bonaparte I, which brought about the rebellion of the people of Madrid on 2 May. Goya depicted these events in his painting “3 May”. During the following three years he continued to paint portraits and worked on the etchings on the “Disasters of War”. On the etched plated of this series, “Sad Thoughts about what is going to happen” (1810-1820), there is a mixture of romanticism and rationality. As the plates continuously depict a negative aspect - hunger, illness, obscurantism - Goya`s rationality gained ground and made all lyricism disappear. Towards the end, a small glimpse of romanticism appeared in the etched plates “Truth has died” and “If It Returned?”.
In 1814 Fernando VII (The Desired) returned to Madrid and the persecution of the liberals began. It was then that Goya painted “Los Mamelucos en la Puerta del Sol” and “3 May”. The vision of violence persisted in him even after the war and in the way he showed this in his drawings, etched plates and lithographs - techniques that he learned when he was 73 years old. In this manner “Disparates del Miedo” and “Disparate Matrimonial” appeared and he showed the political torture that was used in his “For Freedom” and “French Punishment” ( Gr�newald collection ). The series of his etchings are carefully exhibited at the Prado Museum.
In 1820 he made his “Black Paintings”. By order of the French Monarchy the restoration of absolutism was started. Goya fled and found refuge at the house of a friend, but later presented himself at Court and obtained the authorization to emigrate to France. He was also granted a lifelong pension by the King. First he went to Paris and then to Bordeaux accompanied by Leocadia Zorilla and her daughter, Rosta Weiss, to whom he was godfather.
In 1825 he made a series of lithographs known as “The Bulls of Bordeaux” and the following year he returned to Spain where Vicente Lopez painted a portrait of him by order of the King. He painted his grandson Mariano and then back in Bordeaux, he painted “The Milkwoman of Bordeaux”, also at the request of the King. Moratin declared that upon meeting him some friends would say “…deaf, old, awkward, weak…and yet so happy and with enthusiasm to see the world”. Among his drawings in pencil done in Bordeaux there is one that summarizes the pleasures that the octogenarian missed. It represents a sort of dwarfish woman with a not too intelligent face, with various necklaces with small bells around her neck, and she is holding a series of papers on her lap that read health - sleep - freedom - joy, while another, pleasure, is placed almost at the hem of her dress.
The old and deaf artist, exiled by his own will entitled this painting “Mad Woman who sells Pleasures”. His grandson Mariano and his daughter-in-law travelled to Bordeaux where, after a long illness (followed by paralysis), he died on 16 April 1828.
