Famous paintings by Goya. The best paintings by Francisco Goya - the love and pain of a great soul

While traveling in Spain in 1824, Eugene Delacroix wrote in his diary, “Goya trembled around me.” Goya is not only the most national artist of Spain, the formation of modern art is associated with his name.

The work of Goya, a contemporary of the French Revolution, the national liberation war of Spain with Napoleonic France, the rapid rise of social forces and brutal reaction, occurred during one of the most dramatic periods of Spanish history. It combined the progressive thought of the era and echoes of stable popular ideas, the breadth of social positions and the strongest imprint of his subjective experiences, fiery temperament, impulsive nature, and boundless imagination. Goya's art exudes exciting power; it is truly inexhaustible and not subject to cold analysis. His artistic language is sharply exposed, mercilessly sharp and at the same time complicated, encrypted, changeably mobile, and sometimes difficult to explain.

Goya was born in the village of Fuendestodos near Zaragoza in the family of an artisan gilder. He studied in Zaragoza with J. Luzan Martinez, then in Madrid with F. Bayeu, whose daughter, Josefa, he married in 1773. Goya's stormy, adventurous youth is little known. He visited Italy, where he participated in the Parma Academy competition and received second prize. From 1773 he lived and worked in Madrid, and in 1786 he was appointed court painter.

Goya emerged as a major artist relatively late. His first significant success was brought to him by two series (1776-1791) of numerous panels (cardboards for carpets) for the Royal Manufactory of Santa Barbara in Madrid, which depict walks, picnics, dances, feasts of urban youth, scenes in markets, washerwomen on the banks of the Manzanares, the poor at the well, blind guitarist, village wedding. Goya enriched decorative painting with innovations in composition, enlargement of figures, colorful coloristic findings, and most importantly - a direct sense of national life, which he perceived not from the gaze of an outside observer, but as if from within; this environment was familiar to him from his youth.

The Umbrella (Madrid, Prado), written in 1777, does not have a developed plot. A motif that was fashionable in genre painting at that time inspired him to create a captivating pictorial image in which the girl’s face and part of her figure, shaded by a green umbrella from the sun’s rays, are full of light colorful reflections. Here you can see how much Goya owes to Velazquez, whom, along with nature and Rembrandt, he considered his teacher.

Goya became a fashionable portrait painter, inundated with orders. It is difficult to find another great portrait painter who would so decisively show his personal attitude towards the people he depicts. He remained completely indifferent to some of them, and then his commissioned portraits seem strangely lifeless, numb. An artist who has an impeccable command of plastic form becomes unexpectedly helpless and allows negligence in drawing and composition. It is no coincidence that in a letter to Goya’s friend, the director of the Royal Academy of History asks to influence the artist to paint his portrait “as he can, when he wants.”

Goya's portraits represent the society of that time in its entire breadth. The scope of his creative evolution is amazing, from ceremonial portraits in the traditions of the 18th century to works that anticipate the most daring achievements of 19th-century art. Goya's closeness to the progressive people of Spain filled his art with a new sense of life. Among his friends are writers, poets, politicians, and actors. He treats their portraits with special careful attention (portraits of the artist F. Bayeu, doctor Peral, public figure Jovellanos, poet L. Moratin). At the beginning of the 19th century, in Goya’s portrait images, full of energy and self-confidence, features close to the ideals of the era of romanticism appeared. In the famous portrait of Isabel Cobos de Porcel (1806, London, National Gallery), the appearance of a young blooming woman with a fiery gaze and black Spanish lace is marked by acute national character.

By the end of the century, Goya's court career, which reached its zenith in 1799, when he became the king's first painter, brought him a lot of bitterness and disappointment.

At the end of the 1790s, perceiving the dark and ugly sides of life around him more and more clearly and sharply, Goya experienced a mental crisis, aggravated by hearing loss as a result of a serious illness. The artist endured his deafness with rare courage, trying to find a means of communication with the outside world.

Powerful impulses of creative inspiration ruled over Goya's contradictory nature. The end of the 18th century was marked by high artistic achievements in his work. He completed work on a series of etchings called Caprichos, which included him among the largest masters of world graphic art. In this unsurpassed example of tragic grotesque, Goya exposed the ulcers of feudal-Catholic Spain.

In 1798, Goya created frescoes for the Madrid church of San Antonio de la Florida. A bright, life-affirming principle triumphs in them. The painting of the dome depicts a medieval legend about the miraculous resurrection in Lisbon of a murdered man by Saint Anthony of Padua, who named the name of his real killer. The miracle was transferred by the artist to the setting of contemporary life, taking place against the backdrop of free Castilian nature, in the open air, in the presence of a discordant crowd. The church paintings are a grandiose achievement of Goya as a master of monumental painting. They were received with delight and enthusiasm; one of his biographers wrote that two miracles took place in Madrid, one performed by Anthony of Padua, the other by the artist Goya.

In June 1800, Goya began “Portrait of the Family of King Charles IV” (Madrid, Prado), which united fourteen figures. The frozen persons of the royal house, lined up in one of the palace chambers of Aranjuez, fill the canvas from edge to edge. Everything is at the mercy of the prevailing tension and mutual hostility. The portrait shimmers with a magical radiance of colors; it seems to be composed of precious stones. From this royal splendor emerge numb figures, but the faces are especially naked and sharply painted - insignificant, swollen, self-satisfied. Goya's famous work has no analogues in world painting. It breaks the tradition of ceremonial official images. It would be an extreme simplification to see it as a caricature, because everything here is the cruelest truth. Those who ordered it, elevated to the pinnacle of power, were not given the opportunity to understand its revealing power. I liked the portrait and was favorably received. The same thing happened in 1803, when Goya, fearing the Inquisition, decided to take a bold step and respectfully presented the Caprichos etching boards to the king.

A special place among his works of the early 19th century is occupied by the image of a young woman, captured twice - dressed and naked. It does not strictly belong to the portrait genre. Here is embodied the nationally characteristic type of sensual female beauty that attracted the artist, infinitely far from academic canons. The irregularity of the delicate pale golden and seemingly tangibly alive naked body lies in its exciting appeal. Flowing and smooth painting is plastic and flawless. To this day, much remains unclear: the circumstances of the order of the two paintings, their exact dating and final title, the question of who this woman was, so boldly depicted naked by the artist in violation of the Inquisition ban. Usually double paintings are called “Maja dressed” and “Maja naked” (both - ca. 1800, Madrid, Prado), but the word “Maja” itself - “city dandy” - appeared in relation to them only in 1831, and in old inventories it was about the Gypsy, Venus. The assumption that his beloved Duchess Cayetana Alba posed for Goya was rejected due to the physical and age differences between the Duchess and the unknown girl who served as the artist’s model. The Inquisition became interested in these paintings, and in 1815 the artist was summoned to the Madrid Tribunal, where he had to identify them and explain for whom and for what purpose they were created. But the interrogation protocol was not preserved. Both Machs are among Goya's most famous works, surrounded by a romantic aura and various speculations.

A bloody war was raging in the country against those whom Goya and his “Frenchized” friends had so recently considered to be the bearers of long-awaited freedom. A Spanish patriot, he suffered deeply and was indignant. In the small painting “Colossus” (1810-1812, Madrid, Prado) there is a spectacle of general chaos generated by the unexpected appearance of a colossal figure of a naked giant, which terribly grows beyond the outlines of the mountains and touches the clouds. The fantastic image has been interpreted in different ways. Probably the colossus, clenching its fist menacingly and turning its back to the valley, where people and animals scatter in wild confusion, horsemen and carts fall, personifies the merciless forces of war, bringing general ruin, panic and death. What Goya - a witness to the Napoleonic invasion - experienced in occupied Madrid, in long-suffering Zaragoza, destroyed by French sieges, which he visited in the fall of 1808, gave a new powerful impetus to his work both in painting and in graphics, leading to the creation of works of tragic and heroic sound. The power of drama contained in his work reached its highest intensity.

The large canvases in the Prado, which form a historical diptych and depict “The Uprising of the Puerta del Sol on May 2, 1808” and “The Execution of the Rebels on the Night of May 3,” remain forever in the memory. The composition of the first painting is tied in one elastic knot. Goya watched the battle between the Madrid people and the French cavalry on the Puerta del Sol from his son's house. The second picture is world famous. Over Madrid and the bare hills surrounding it there is a dull and seemingly eternal night. Under the black sky lurked the enslaved and trampled Madrid. From there, like a dark river, a crowd of victims moves along the hills towards the place of execution. There was one last moment left before the salvo. The ominous yellow light of a lantern pulls out of the darkness a group of rebels pressed against the hillside, at whom the raised guns of a faceless line of French soldiers are aimed. The inexorability of impending doom is sharply contrasted by the strength of human feelings. The artist simply, harshly, nakedly and at the same time deeply humanly conveys a feeling of doom, fear bordering on madness, strong-willed composure, and withering hatred of the enemy.

Goya's inherent ability to respond with all the passion of his temperament to the events of our time found its clearest expression in a series of etchings known as “The Disasters of War,” given to her by the Academy of San Fernando when published in 1863. The national tragedy is shown here in all its mercilessness. These are mountains of corpses, executions of partisans, fierce battles, outrages of marauders, pangs of hunger, punitive expeditions, disgraced women, orphaned children.

Goya's later work coincides with the years of violent reaction after the defeat of two Spanish bourgeois revolutions. In a state of mental confusion and gloomy despair, he settled in a new house known as “Quinta del Sordo” (“House of the Deaf”). Goya covered the walls of the two-story house with fourteen dark, fantastic oil paintings. Full of allegories, allusions, and associations, they are completely unique in their figurative structure and powerful artistic impact. The "Black Paintings" - as they are commonly called - were in danger of disappearing completely when the Quinta del Sordo was demolished in 1910. Fortunately, Goya's painting was transferred to canvas, restored and is located in the Prado.

The paintings are dominated by a devilish, frightening, unnatural principle; an ominous image appears as if in a nightmare. Toothless vixens or elders with bare skulls - the likeness of Death itself - greedily slurp the stew, a screaming frenzied crowd of freaks marches to the source of San Isidro, the devil in the form of a huge black Goat in a monastic robe leads a gathering of vile witches. The set of colors is harsh, stingy, almost monochrome - black, white, reddish, ocher, the colors seem to have absorbed the shades of the Spanish land burned by the sun, the rust of rocks, the smoldering flame of red soils, the strokes are sweeping and swift. A graphic parallel to Kinta's paintings was the series "Disparates" ("Proverbs", 1820-1823) with even more complex encrypted images.

In 1824, during the years of reaction, Goya was forced to emigrate to France, to the city of Bordeaux, where he died. An inexhaustible thirst for creativity did not leave him until the last years of his life. Completely deaf and going blind, the artist continued to create paintings, portraits, miniatures, and lithographs. “...Only will supports me,” he wrote to friends.

In his most recent works, Goya returns to the image of triumphant youth (The Milkmaid of Bordeaux, 1826, Madrid, Prado).

Literary works, fictionalized biographies and films are devoted to Goya's life. His art had a tremendous impact on Spanish artistic culture of the 19th-20th centuries, not only on painting and graphics, but also literature, drama, theater, and cinema. Many masters of world culture turned to Goya, from Delacroix to Picasso, from Edouard Manet to Mexican masters of folk graphics. And today Goya remains unfadingly modern.

Tatiana Kaptereva

And “Two Old Men Eating Soup” is very similar in atmosphere and expression to “The Potato Eaters” by Van Gogh.

You have chosen very good quotes to accompany the stunning murals. I like them very much.

Writing directly on the wall is fantastic. I had such an experience, an incredible feeling.

Julia Ria:
November 22, 2011 at 12:20

Compared to Van Gogh. Yes, the same gloomy colors, the same atmosphere of suffocation and powerlessness or something... I like “The Dog” most of all of these paintings, such a strange atmosphere was created by Goya.

I don’t remember, have you read this book about Goya by Feuchtwanger? It ends right at the place where the artist decided to paint the walls of his house. There should have been a second part, but... the writer’s life was cut short - so unfair.

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November 22, 2011 at 01:47 pm

The dog has such a pitiful look, there is so much loneliness and resentment in her, and in front of her there is a barely visible shadow (but maybe these are the projections of the wall), which she looks at with the question: “Why did you leave me?”...

I don't remember if I've read Feuchtwanger's Goya, but that won't stop me from reading this book when the mood strikes.

These late works of Goya are pure expressionism. He was very ahead of his time.

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November 24, 2011 at 18:07

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November 25, 2011 at 11:30

For a long time I did not accept and rejected conceptual art, various wild, repulsive performances, actions, happenings and the like. In Russia the term “contemporary art” has been adopted, but in the rest of the world they don’t know about it.))

As an example, the scandalous antics of the most famous Russian artist, the dog man Oleg Kulik. I really like one of his old works “Russian Eclipse”, where he is naked with a red banner in his hand.))

It took me a lot of time, reading relevant literature and articles about contemporary art, to begin to convince myself that everything has a place in art. And nothing can be denied.

I haven’t understood any better, but I’m still sometimes interested in what’s going on in conceptual (intellectual) art. Read the statements of Oleg Kulik, they deserve it. Here, for example, is one of his thoughts:

“Everyone is good, but they lie, but the artist does not lie, but he is a greedy and arrogant egoist. The average person also has all these qualities, but in the modern world it is indecent to demonstrate them. The most terrible thing in the world of the average person is not the atomic bomb, not poverty, but what your neighbors will say about you. The artist is not afraid of this.”

Here's another thing I really liked:

“Art that exists for the sake of sale is no longer art.”

So I get aversion and rejection from commercial art, paintings for sale. But I have been fighting this “righteous anger” for a long time quite successfully.))

Yul, what is it that disgusts you?

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November 25, 2011 at 16:16

And yet I don’t quite understand what you mean by commercial art? What is sold in principle or what is deliberately portrayed to suit the taste of the public?

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November 25, 2011 at 17:37

How can I be against everything that is for sale? I myself have sold more than a dozen paintings. Plus, everything eventually ends up on the art market.

Of course, I mean what is drawn specifically for sale. That is, knowing in advance what the public will buy. To her taste. But I have been understanding this for a long time now. After all, people need to live from something. Why not from paintings?

Olya, the intention of the artist is important to me. Primordial. This is what makes the difference between the works. That’s why we call one painting art, but we don’t call the other.

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November 25, 2011 at 18:13

Now it’s clear. Sometimes it seems to me that you’re against selling at all.

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November 26, 2011 at 12:57 pm

Of course not! I am for it. And I’m very glad when artists manage to live from their art. That's great rarity.

In this matter, it is important to understand what is the goal and what is the means.))

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December 1, 2011 at 01:57 pm

Yes, yes, if you think first of all only about money, spirituality and meaningfulness are lost. But the presence of income does not deny the presence of meaning. These things are not always clear to everyone. Especially in our country, in Russia. The master must be poor - it sits in the minds of many, and if the master is rich, then this is no longer art. The same Goya received a lot of money for his portraits and was a court painter, of which he was proud. But he did not overstep himself.

The phrase: “The worst thing in the world of the average person is not the atomic bomb, not poverty, but what your neighbors will say about you” - amazing! Simple but accurate. What will your neighbors, colleagues, and just passers-by say about you? I’m disgusted by all this (however, alas, I have it too).

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December 1, 2011 at 15:20

Of course he doesn’t deny it! People are confused about concepts, that's absolutely true. And to what extent, I can’t wrap my head around it. For example, most people believe that any painting is art. Automatically. If all the attributes are there: a canvas covered with paints, a frame, then it is art. What else? This never ceases to shock me. Julia, why is the word art applied to any painting? Do you have a version?

This “what will they say about you” is painfully familiar to me. Since I always didn’t care, my parents experienced the consequences of my indifference to the fullest.))

Francisco Goya (1746-1828) is a Spanish artist who went down in the history of his country as a great painter who rejected classical foundations and depicted human essence in its real, painfully exposed light, with all its shortcomings and vices.

Francisco Goya: portrait of the artist

A gloomy, slightly puffy face, a thoughtful, wary and heavy gaze full of sarcasm, looking menacingly from under the eyebrows, a large head - this is how the viewer sees the artist in a self-portrait.

This is how he was in life - a master of the brush, a tired man who changed his mind a lot and fundamentally comprehended the realities of the existence of ordinary people. Having looked soberly and carefully at the world around him, Goya saw the lies, stupidity, hypocrisy, and superstition dominating it, which, indignantly, he captured in his works. Francisco Goya's paintings are a loud satire on society with its flaws and weaknesses.

During his lifetime, the talented Spaniard was not known outside his country. For the rest, he was discovered in the middle of the 19th century by French romantics, who were interested in the fantasy of his creations. Assessments of Goya's work have changed several times. For modern connoisseurs of beauty, he is not only a creator of images that impress with their fantastic nature, but also a great master of real art. You either accept or don’t accept Francisco Goya’s paintings; in any case, the viewer will not remain indifferent.

The artist's early work

In his younger years, the talented Spaniard painted differently, weaving into his own creations the wonderful poetry of the emerging individual style - the style of Francisco Goya. The paintings he created fully convey the magic of a brush that has realized its power and enjoys it. The work “Umbrella” - an example of the artist’s early work - attracts the eye with the play of colors, every stroke, the flexible grace of a woman, the rich and bold tints of the color palette, fabulous lighting and some kind of almost musical coherence of the composition. The mastery of this creation (the pinnacle of early Goya) is crystal clear, the atmosphere is still cloudless, as well as the young years of the talented Spaniard.

Stories about Goya's early life are more reminiscent of the exciting legends of which he was the central figure. In Zaragoza, the young man was subject to the Inquisition because of the fight he started. In Madrid, Francisco was found bleeding with a knife in his back, he roamed the expanses of Spain with wandering bullfighters, in Italy - a country where the painter honed his ability to draw for several years - he climbed the dome of St. Peter's Cathedral and walked along the cornice around the tomb of Cecilia Metellas.

Paintings by Francisco Goya: a look at the inner world of society

Francisco Goya created an amazing series of etchings “Caprichos” (1793-1797), consisting of 83 works that maximally convey the spirit of freedom and reality, which he described briefly and accurately: “The world is a masquerade in which everyone deceives, they want to appear to be the wrong person, who they really are. Nobody knows themselves." Francisco José de Goya, whose paintings make you think about a time long past, is a man who knew how to see deeper than everyday life, who brings humanity through his works, who was the first to hear the growing noise of the new time, who fought against all lies and is looking for the foundation on which a better future should be built own people.

Francisco Goya was patronized by the most noble Spanish aristocrats. He became a member of the arts, then its vice-director, and later director of the painting department. In 1786, Francisco Goya was appointed court painter.

Francisco Goya: famous paintings

A bright master portrait painter who gained official fame in this genre in the 80s of the 18th century, in 1792 Francisco Goya became seriously ill, which led to complete deafness. It was during this difficult period that art became his only refuge. The artist began to avoid people and completely withdrew into himself, continuing to paint portraits.

Francisco Goya’s first paintings in this genre were ceremonial (“Charles III on the hunt”), over time they acquired lightness and palpable irony in relation to the models (“Marquise Anna Pontejos”, “Family of the Duke of Osuna”). The artist’s new vision of reality and his critical approach to it can be traced in the master’s later works. For example, “Portrait of the Royal Family” (1800) depicts his loved ones, whose prim and arrogant faces the artist did not even try to embellish. The master reliably conveys the repulsive appearance, spiritual poverty and insignificance of the ruling elite, without hiding his hostility towards the Spanish monarchs.

Francisco Goya survived the terrible years of the occupation of Spain by Napoleonic troops, witnessing the brutal massacres of the invaders against the civilian population. It was these events that served as the basis for the creation of such works as “Execution on the night of May 2-3, 1808”, “Uprising of May 2 at Puerta del Sol”.

Goya worked until his very last day. One of his final works was an old man on crutches with the caption: “I’m still learning.” The artist died of paralysis, during the period of the birth of the new. Having at the turn of two centuries a completely new view of the world around him, which rejected old prohibitions and illusions, Goya was able to convey with great reliability in his work all the complexity and inconsistency of his time.

Francisco de Goya y Lucientes is a great Spanish artist, member of the Academy and court painter. His work had features of both classicism and romanticism, but this artist could not be completely attributed to any style, his paintings were so unlike anyone else. He began in the Rococo style, and in his later works he achieved merciless truthfulness and created fantastic images of stunning power.

Goya was born in Zaragoza, the son of an altar gilder. The mother was the daughter of a poor hidalgo from those who, as Cervantes wrote, “has an ancestral spear, an ancient shield, a skinny nag and a greyhound dog.” The young man began to study painting in his hometown. Here he was friends with the Bayeu family, whose elder brother became Goya’s teacher in Madrid, where Goya also moved.

In 1771, the artist received the second Academy Award in Parma for his painting about Hannibal. Then he returned to Zaragoza, and his professional creative path began. Goya develops slowly, his bright individuality fully manifested itself only at the age of forty. In Zaragoza, the master painted one of the churches with frescoes, in which the influence of Tiepolo was visible. In 1775 he marries Josepha Baya and leaves for Madrid. Here he received a large order for paintings for tapestries and worked on them until 1791, completing 43 orders. In his compositions he included street life, games at festivals, fights in front of a village tavern, figures of beggars, robbers and, of course, a variety of female images.

During these same years, Goya began to study graphics and chose the etching technique in engraving.

In the 70-80s, the artist was actively involved in portrait painting. Goya did not seek to embellish the model, no matter what level in society she occupied. Sometimes he even emphasized certain features in the portrait that did not decorate it at all. But Goya did this in a completely harmless way, because he always found and captured in the image some of the most striking, individual zest that made the image interesting.

Goya takes many orders from representatives of the upper classes of society in Madrid. He loved social success, he was invited to all high society events. He was patronized by Don Manuel, Duke of Alcudia, the queen's favorite and first minister of Spain. Women loved him and he had a constant mistress. He lived in grand style, without particularly thinking about spending. In those years, Goya was not interested in politics and happily accepted official positions: he was elected a member of the Academy of San Fernando (Academy of Arts), he became the chief artist of the tapestry manufactory, then received the title of court artist. From that time on, orders for Goya poured in from all sides.

Goya had many children, he loved and respected his wife Josepha in his own way. However, his greatest passion, his greatest love, was his connection with one of the most amazing, most unpredictable, unlike anyone else - Duchess Cayetana Alba from the old family of famous Alba, whose husband was the Marquis de Villabranca. Goya painted Doña Cayetana many times, especially in the form of a maja, a girl of the people.

In the 90s, Goya performed a number of portraits, brilliant in technique and subtle in characterization, testifying to the flourishing of his painting skills (portrait of F. Bayeux). They contain intelligence, Spanish character, and individuality. The group portrait of the royal family of Charles IV and Marie Louise is stunning in the frankness of its characteristics. Goya competes with the best masters of the Venetian Renaissance in his famous “Machs” - portraits of Cayetana Alba. In them he struck a blow at the academic school. He was accused that the chest was written incorrectly, that the makha was too short-legged, etc. He was especially accused that the images of the makha were too sensual.

In the mid-90s, Goya's long-standing illness worsened, resulting in deafness. The misfortune that befell him forced him to take a fresh look at many events in the country. Unlike other European countries, the Inquisition still flourishes in Spain. And very difficult relations with France. All this could not but leave an imprint on the artist’s work: paintings full of carnival fun (“The Game of Blind Man’s Bluff”, “Carnival”) are replaced by such as “The Tribunal of the Inquisition”, “Madhouse of Madmen”, etchings “Caprichos”.

The French invasion of Spain, the struggle of the Spaniards with the French army, a struggle in which a small people showed great courage - all these events were reflected in the works of Goya ("Uprising of May 2", "Execution of May 3 in Madrid").

In 1814 Ferdinand VII returned to Spain. The reaction period began. Many were thrown into prison. Goya was completely alone. His wife died. His friends either died or were expelled from Spain. Many portraits of these years were marked by features of genuine tragedy. The artist lives alone, secluded, in a house that neighbors called “the house of the deaf.” His painting is sometimes understandable only to himself. The painting is dark, olive-gray and black, with spots of white, yellow, and red.

In 1821 - 1823 there was a Spanish uprising against the reaction, which was crushed by troops. Since Goya supported the rebels, the king spoke of him like this: “This one is worthy of a noose.”

In 1824, the artist’s life became unbearable, and he left for France under the pretext of treatment. Here he finds friends. Here he writes his last beautiful works (“The Milkmaid from Bordeaux”, etc.).

In 1826, Goya came to Madrid for a short time, where he was received favorably: “He is too famous to be harmed, and too old to be afraid of him.”

Goya died in Bordeaux in 1828. At the end of the century, his remains were transported to his homeland.

Francisco Bayeu was Goya's brother-in-law. He, too, was an artist from whom the young Goya began to study and who throughout his life convinced him to paint according to the classical canons of painting, which he himself followed. Bayeu did not understand the obstinate Goya, since he always wanted to paint the way he imagined his painting. On this basis, constant friction occurred between them, and Josepha, Goya’s wife, often supported her brother. And so illness confined Bayeu to his deathbed. Relatives and friends decided what to do with the artist’s unfinished paintings. Among these paintings was a self-portrait of Bayeu. And then Goya suggested finishing it.

Goya worked with a sense of responsibility and changed little in what had already been done. Only the eyebrows became a little more gloomy, the folds from the nose to the mouth lay a little deeper and more tired, the chin protruded a little more stubbornly, the corners of the mouth dropped a little more disgustingly. He put both hatred and love into his work, but they did not cloud the cold, brave, incorruptible eye of the artist.

In the end, the result was a portrait of an inhospitable, sickly, elderly gentleman, who had struggled all his life, finally tired of both his high position and his eternal labors, but too conscientious to allow himself to rest.

And yet, looking down from the stretcher was a respectable man who demanded more from life than he needed, and from himself more than he could give. But the whole picture was filled with a silvery-joyful radiance, which was given by the shimmering light gray tone that Goya had recently discovered. And the silvery lightness spread throughout the picture imperiously emphasizes the rigidity of the face and the pedantic sobriety of the hand holding the brush.

The man depicted in the portrait was unattractive, but the portrait itself was even more attractive.

The canvas depicts the wife of Goya's friend, Miguel Bermudez - Lucia Bermudez. This is a very beautiful woman. There was something mysterious in her mocking face, as if hidden by a mask. Far apart eyes under high eyebrows, a large mouth with a thin upper lip and a plump lower lip tightly compressed. The lady had already posed for the artist three times, but the portrait, according to the artist, was never a success. There was no way he could capture that elusive thing that makes a portrait alive and unique.

One day Goya saw Lucia at a party. She was wearing a light yellow dress with white lace. And he immediately wanted to write it, imagining it in a silvery glow, seeing in it that elusively embarrassing, bottomless, and most important thing that was in it. And so he wrote it. And everything was as it should be - the face, the body, the pose, the dress, and the background - everything was right. And yet it was nothing, the most important thing was missing - a shade, a trifle, but what was missing decided everything. A lot of time has passed, and the artist has already despaired of finding this necessary thing.

And suddenly he remembered her as he saw her for the first time. Suddenly he understood how to convey this shimmering, iridescent, flowing silver-gray gamut that was revealed to him then. It's not the background, it's not the white lace on the yellow dress. This line needs to be softened, this one too, so that both the tone of the body and the light that comes from the hand, from the face, play. A trifle, but this trifle is everything. Now everything was working out as it should.

Everyone admired the portrait; my husband, Miguel, really liked it. But most of all, it seems, Doña Lucia herself liked him.

Nobody commissioned this painting from the artist; he painted it for his own pleasure. It depicted a romeria - a folk festival in honor of Saint Isidro, the patron saint of the capital.

Merry festivities in the meadow near the monastery of Saint Isidro were a favorite pastime of the inhabitants of Madrid; and he himself, Francisco, on the occasion of the last successful release from the burden of his Josepha, organized a feast for three hundred people in the meadow in front of the temple; the invitees, according to custom, listened to mass and treated themselves to turkey.

The depiction of such festivities has long attracted Madrid artists. Romeria was painted by Goya himself ten years ago. But this was not real festive fun, but the artificial gaiety of gentlemen and ladies in masks; now he depicted the spontaneous, unbridled joy of himself and his Madrid.

In the distance, in the background, a beloved city rose:

Confusion of domes, towers, white cathedrals

And the palace... And in the front - Manzanares splashes peacefully.

And, having gathered over the river, all the people, feasting, glorify

Patron of the capital. People are having fun. They're going

Horsemen and carriages, many tiny figures

Written with care. Who is sitting and who is lazy?

He lay down on the grass. They laugh, drink, eat, chat, joke.

Guys, lively girls, townspeople, gentlemen.

And above it all - the clear color of azure... It’s like Goya

All the crazy joy of the heart, the power of the hand and the clarity of the eye

Transferred to my painting. He shook himself off, threw away

The strict science of lines, the one that has been shackled for a long time

His spirit. He was free, he was happy, and today

The Romeria was jubilant. Colors, light and perspective.

Ahead - the river and people, in the distance - in the background -

White City. And everything merged together in festive unity.

People, city, air, waves have become one here,

Light, colorful and bright, and happy.

(L. Feuchtwanger)

The portrait of the royal family was commissioned by Don Carlos IV himself. The painting turned out to be of impressive size - 2.80 m in height and 3.67 m in length.

From the very beginning, Goya decided to paint a portrait painting. He arranged the members of the royal family not in a row, but interspersed. In the center he placed the queen with her children. On her left hand, in the very foreground, was placed the portly Don Carlos. On the left side of the picture, the artist depicted the king’s heir, sixteen-year-old Don Fernando, with an insignificant but rather handsome face. Here is Infanta Maria Louise with a child in her arms, friendly, nice, but not very prominent. Next to her is her husband, a lanky man, the Crown Prince of the Ducal Kingdom of Parma. Here is the old Infanta Maria Josepha, the king’s sister, amazingly ugly; he painted her for quite a long time, fascinated by her ugliness. Behind the king is the king's brother, Infante Don Antonio Pascual, who looks ridiculously like him. The heir's bride was absent, but since negotiations about the future wedding were not yet completed, Goya depicted her turned away from the viewer, with an anonymous face.

Of course, first of all, the viewer sees the king and queen in the center of the picture. The king himself posed very willingly. He stood straight, sticking out his chest and stomach, on which the blue and white ribbon of the Order of Carlos shone, the red ribbon of the Portuguese Order of Christ shone, and the Golden Fleece shimmered; The gray trim on the light brown velvet French caftan glowed dullly, and the hilt of the sword sparkled. The bearer of all this splendor himself stood straight, firmly, importantly, proud that, despite the padagra, he was still so strong, just blood and milk!

Next to the king is she, the aging, ugly, dressed-up Queen Marie-Louise. Perhaps many people will not like much about this painted woman, but she herself likes her, she approves of this woman! She has an ugly face, but it is extraordinary, it attracts, it is memorable. Yes, it is she, Marie Louise of Bourbon, Princess of Parma, queen of all Spanish possessions, queen of the two Indies, daughter of the Grand Duke, wife of the king, mother of future kings and queens, willing and able to win from life what can be won, knowing no fear and repentance, and she will remain so until she is lowered into the Pantheon of Kings.

And her children stand next to her. With tenderness she holds the hand of the pretty little infant. He lovingly hugs the sweet little infanta. She has living children, very viable, beautiful, healthy, smart, and perhaps many of them will take European thrones.

Both monarchs liked the picture. This is a good, truthful portrait, not embellished, not sweetened, a stern but proud portrait. Monarchs are full of dignity and greatness.

Goya was paid well for the portrait and given the title of first court painter.

The Queen is represented as a mahi - a girl from the people, as Marie Louise herself wished.

Here she stands in a natural and at the same time majestic pose, maha and queen. The nose is like the beak of a bird of prey, the eyes look with an intelligent, greedy gaze, the chin is stubborn, the lips are tightly clenched over the diamond teeth. The rouged face bears the mark of experience, greed and cruelty. The mantilla falling from the wig is crossed on the chest, the neck in the deep neckline of the dress beckons with freshness, the hands are fleshy, but beautifully shaped, the left one is covered in rings, lazily lowered, the right one is invitingly and expectantly holding a tiny fan to the chest.

Goya tried to say with his portrait neither too much nor too little. His Doña Maria Luisa was ugly, but he made this ugliness alive, sparkling, almost attractive. He painted a red and lilac bow in his hair, and next to this bow black lace sparkled even more proudly. He put on her gold shoes that glittered from under her black dress, and cast a soft body glow over everything.

The Queen had nothing to complain about. In the most flattering form, she expressed her complete satisfaction to him and even asked him to make two copies.

The Duchess of Alba came from an old, influential and very wealthy family. Her husband, the Duke of Alba, was pampered, inert, but very educated and loved music. He looked at his headstrong, energetic, passionate wife as if she were a capricious child, condescendingly forgiving her for all her quirks and infidelities.

Cayetana was very beautiful and shone at court, and was closely received by the royal family of Carlos IV. From the very first meeting, Goya fell in love with the young duchess; the love was mutual and passionate.

By the way, there is now talk that this is a legend, that Feuchtwanger, who wrote the famous book “Goya or the Hard Path of Knowledge,” invented this love, that such a beautiful, spoiled aristocrat could not fall in love with a clumsy, middle-aged, and not very famous yet artist. But the ways of love are inscrutable, and so far no one has denied the opposite.

Goya wrote to Cayetana many times and he didn’t like a single portrait of her; he still couldn’t catch, convey in the image that zest, that dash that would show the real Cayetana Alba.

In this portrait, Goya depicted the Duchess against the backdrop of nature. Carefully and carefully, he painted out the landscape, but in such a way that it did not catch the eye, and only Cayetana remained. She stands proud and fragile, with incredibly arched eyebrows under black waves of hair, in a white dress with a high waist, covered in a red scarf and with a red bow on her chest. And in front of her is a funny, absurdly tiny white shaggy dog with an equally funny tiny red bow on its hind leg. Cayetana points down with an elegant finger, where the words “Goya-Cayetana Alba” are written in letters turned towards her, and this gesture seems to hint that Goya himself is also something like this funny dog for her.

Goya never managed, in his opinion, to reflect in the portrait that inner fire, that contradiction of her character, which so attracted her to her and at the same time repelled her and alarmed her.

The painting represents the inside of a madhouse. A vast room reminiscent of a cellar, bare stone walls with vaults. The light falls into the openings between the vaults and into the window with bars. Here the insane are gathered in a heap and locked together, there are many of them - and each of them is hopelessly alone. Everyone is crazy in their own way. In the middle there is a naked young strong man; gesticulating wildly, insisting and threatening, he argues with an invisible opponent. Other half-naked people are immediately visible, on their heads they have crowns, bull horns and multi-colored feathers, like the Indians. They sit, stand, lie, huddled together under the overhanging stone arch. But there is a lot of air and light in the picture.

Engravings - "Caprichos" (Whims) (1793 - 1797)

At the end of the 18th century, Goya created the immortal series of engravings "Caprichos" - caprices. The series includes 80 sheets, numbered and signed. In these engravings, the artist accuses the world of evil, obscurantism, violence, hypocrisy and fanaticism. In these satirical sheets, Goya ridicules, using allegorical language, often depicting animals and birds instead of people.

The subject matter of the engravings is unusual, often understandable only to the artist himself. But nevertheless, the sharpness of social satire and ideological aspiration is absolutely clear. A number of sheets are devoted to modern morals. A woman in a mask offers her hand to an ugly groom, surrounded by a crowd of people also wearing masks (“She offers her hand to the first person she meets”). A servant drags a man on a leash, wearing a child's dress ("Old Spoiled Child"). A young woman, covering her face in horror, pulls out a tooth from a hanged man (“On the Hunt for Teeth”). The police are leading prostitutes ("Poor Things").

A whole series of sheets is a satire on the church: pious parishioners pray to a tree dressed in a monastic robe; the parrot preaches something from the pulpit (“What a Chrysostom”). Donkey Worksheets: Donkey examines his family tree; teaches a donkey to read and write; a monkey paints a portrait from a donkey; two people carry donkeys. Owls, bats, terrible monsters surround a sleeping man: “The sleep of reason produces monsters.”

In Aesopian language, in the form of a fable, a parable, a legend, Goya delivers well-aimed blows to the court and the nobility. Goya's artistic language is expressive, his drawings are expressive, his compositions are dynamic, his characters are unforgettable.

Engravings "Caprichos" (Whims) "The Horrors of War" (1793 - 1797)

A number of iconic works by the famous Spaniard.

Goya

Francisco de Goya is a famous Spanish artist and engraver. He gained his initial fame as a creator of beautiful tapestries, but true fame came to him as a court artist of the Spanish crown. What makes Goya's works unique is his creative approach and bold use of colors. The master's style inspired many imitators and had a serious influence on the world of art.

Umbrella (1777)

This piece is part of a series of 63 works that the artist created early in his career. It is believed that working on this cycle helped the master study the ways of human interaction, which later turned out to be important when creating later masterpieces. “Umbrella” combines motifs of French and Spanish fashion.

Dog (1823)

The group of famous “Black Paintings” created by Francisco in the later stages of his creative work also includes an image of a dog, which is easy to lose in the artistic space of the painting. Usually the work is interpreted as a symbol of a person’s struggle with troubles and evil forces.

Mahi (1797–1805)

Both works (“Maja Nude” and “Maja Dressed”) are located side by side in the same hall of the Prado Museum (Madrid). Among the artists who created paintings inspired by these works of Goya, we should note Ignacio Zuloaga and Edouard Manet. To this day, it is unknown who served as the model for the main character of the picture, but traditionally the 13th Duchess of Alba is called the artist’s source of inspiration.

On the pedestal of the monument to the artist, installed in front of the Prado Museum, there is a sculptural image based on the painting “Nude Macha”.

Great Goat (1821–1823)

The Black Painting is often seen by art critics as a satire on the theme of superstition and depicts Satan speaking to a group of witches.

Charles IV and his family (1801)

The portrait shows the ostentatiously dressed King of Spain and his family. It should be noted that the artist’s reluctance to flatter and fib led to the fact that Goya, according to modern researchers, showed in the portrait of the monarch and his family the corrupt nature of their power. Probably the person barely visible on the left is the author of the work.

Disasters of War (1810–1820)

This series of 82 prints is among Goya's most significant works. Art historians divide the series into three parts:

The first 47 engravings show the horrors of war.
The second 18 works depict the consequences of the famine.
The last 17 reflect the disappointment associated with the restoration of the Bourbon monarchy.

This series is a phenomenal visualization of the author's position, which contains indignation and bold political statements.

Disasters of war. 39 work from the series.

The Sleep of Reason Gives Birth to Monsters (1799)

This composition is part of the “Caprichos” series, consisting of 80 works. The artist sleeping among the tools is surrounded by monsters that symbolize ignorance and other vices of society.

Saturn Devouring His Son (1819–1823)

This masterpiece is based on the Roman myth, according to which the Titan Saturn ate his children, as he was predicted to die at the hands of one of his sons. However, the prophecy was destined to come true.
“Saturn Devouring His Son” is a disturbing portrait, part of a series of “black paintings”.

Third of May 1808 (1814)

On May 2, 1808, the people of Madrid rebelled against the French occupiers. Goya depicts this scene in the painting “The Third of May 1808”. In the center of the canvas is a retaliatory strike by French troops, as a result of which hundreds of Spaniards were shot. The painting, revolutionary in style and level of symbolism, inspired Pablo Picasso to create the famous “Guernica.”

Funeral of a Sardine (circa 1808–1814)

Academy of San Fernando, Madrid Goya presents the popular carnival as a demonic festival. Under pressure from the Inquisition, the artist was forced to change the original version of the painting and replace the inscription on the banner mortus (died) with a grimace of the mask. The bubbling joy and distorted joy of the unbridled crowd are a grotesque allegory on the existing social order. In his work, Goya rebels against the orders established by the Inquisition and demonstrates the powerlessness of his contemporaries in their face.

Portrait of Francisco Bayeux (1795)

After 1794, Goya created a number of portraits from life. Thanks to the artist’s keen observation and precise technique, his works are distinguished by deep psychologism and penetration into the inner world of a person. Here is a portrait of the court painter and Goya's brother-in-law Francisco Bayeux (1734–1795) shortly before his death. A tired, slightly irritated facial expression and a carelessly buttoned frock coat characterize the model's personality. At the same time, the frozen pose, the characteristic bend of the hand, and an attentive gaze emphasize the inner virtues of the person being portrayed.

Court of the Inquisition (around 1800)

Goya repeatedly addressed the theme of the Inquisition trial, emphasizing the cruelty of the ceremony and the tragic fate of its victims, who were put on the caps of heretics. Lighting effects and the manner of applying colors help to depict the trial, which is led by obscurantists. The faces of the judges - monks and priests - are distorted with grimaces of death, and their figures merge into a single amorphous mass.

Game of Blind Man's Bluff (1791)

Scenes of everyday life and folk entertainment, characterized by rich colors and ease of composition, showed new trends in the artist’s work. Goya reveals the real world in all its endless diversity. The attractiveness of this sketch for a tapestry intended to decorate a study in the El Escorial Palace is manifested in the bright colors and ease of movement of the characters. It is typical for Goya to depict figures in a gentle, watercolor coloring; the figures of the characters seem to dissolve in a thin haze.

Famous paintings by Francisco Goya updated: January 21, 2018 by: Gleb