Goya y Lucientes, Francisco (Jos�) de 1746-1828
Spanish artist

Born in Fuendetodos, near Saragossa, he returned to Spain in 1775 after travelling in Italy, to design for the Royal Tapestry Works. He worked quite conventionally at first, painting scenes of court pastorals strongly influenced by Giovanni Tiepolo and the Neapolitans, but he soon began introducing scenes from everyday Spanish life, such as Stilt Walkers, Blind Guitarist, which show his passion for reality. At the same time he studied Vel�zquez in the Royal Collections, and this prompted him to begin painting the portraits for which he became famous. In 1786 he was appointed court painter to Charles IV (chief painter in 1799). The portraits, particularly those done of the Spanish royal family (eg The Family of Charles IV, 1800, Prado, Madrid) are painted in an uncompromising and unflattering style which makes one wonder how acceptable they were to their subjects. Other works include Maja nude and Maja clothed (c.1797-1800, Prado, Madrid). In a series of 82 satirical etchings called Los Caprichos issued in 1799, Goya castigated the follies of the court. After the Napoleonic occupation he produced an equally sardonic series entitled The Disasters of War. His religious paintings, particularly the frescoes (1798) for the church of San Antonio de la Florida, Madrid, are extremely freely painted. After 1792 he became increasingly deaf and in later life retired to the outskirts of Madrid, where he painted some extraordinary decorations for his own house (House of the Deaf Man, now in the Prado, Madrid). In 1824, on the accession of Ferdinand VII, he went into voluntary exile in France where he continued to work. His work has influenced virtually every major painter from Eug�ne Delacroix to Picasso.