Francisco de Goya

Selected work

From the studio

5 works, from the studio to here.

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  Portrait of Don Juan Antonio Cuervo

  Portrait of Don Juan Antonio Cuervo

  Francisco de Goya · oil on canvas · 1819

  This portrait both testifies to Goya’s friendship with Cuervo and presents the sitter as a cutting-edge intellectual. Director of the Royal Academy of San Fernando, the official academy for artists and architects in Spain, Cuervo appears with his plan for the recent renovation of Madrid’s Church of Santiago. The jacket with red and gold brocade identifies him as a member of the academy. Image and data from the Cleveland Museum of Art, released under Creative Commons Zero (CC0).

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  They Have Flown, Plate 61

  They Have Flown, Plate 61

  Francisco de Goya · etching and aquatint · 1799

  In the print series Los Caprichos, which translates as “caprices” or “artistic fantasies,” Francisco de Goya drew on his expansive imagination to comment on Spanish society. The artist’s critiques are not always clear, and many of the prints are intentionally ambiguous. Here, three witches support a young woman taking flight. Caught in the wind, her dress and veil transform her into a human butterfly, perhaps reflecting views at the time that characterized women as flighty. However, both the association of butterflies with life’s fragility and the presence of witches—often used by the artist to symbolize immorality and sex work—may instead invite a more sinister interpretation. Image and data from the Cleveland Museum of Art, released under Creative Commons Zero (CC0).

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  When Day Breaks We Will Be Off, Plate 71

  When Day Breaks We Will Be Off, Plate 71

  Francisco de Goya · etching and aquatint · 1799

  Francisco de Goya used printmaking to explore subjects that stirred controversy when represented in more public media, such as oil painting. This print belongs to Los Caprichos, a series of enigmatic images that critique the hypocrisy and irrationality the artist observed throughout contemporary Spanish society. Here, a group of witches prepares to fly without broomsticks or sight, suggesting ignorance and obliviousness. The dense and starry sky behind them was created using layers of aquatint—a technique that Goya was among the earliest and most expert artists to adopt. Image and data from the Cleveland Museum of Art, released under Creative Commons Zero (CC0).

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  Saint Ambrose

  Saint Ambrose

  Francisco de Goya · oil on canvas · 1796

  This work belongs to a series depicting Ambrose, Jerome, Augustine, and Gregory, key figures of early Catholicism. Saint Ambrose (about AD 340–391), the bishop of Milan, resolved important theological conflicts within the church and worked effectively with advocates of Roman paganism. The low viewpoint and large scale suggest that this painting hung high on the wall of a religious institution, but its original location remains unknown. In the late 1700s, Spain expelled all the Jesuits and sparked a transformation of the church. Many of these reformers turned back to early church history for inspiration, and this painting was probably commissioned by one of these new organizations. Image and data from the Cleveland Museum of Art, released under Creative Commons Zero (CC0).

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  Young Woman (possibly a Sex Worker) with a Man (recto); Young Woman Wringing Her Hands over a Man's Naked Body (verso)

  Young Woman (possibly a Sex Worker) with a Man (recto); Young Woman Wringing Her Hands over a Man's Naked Body (verso)

  Francisco de Goya · brush and gray and black washes on laid paper · 1796

  Among the great figures of the pictorial arts in the West, Francisco de Goya is one of the very few whose work as a graphic artist is arguably even more important than his paintings. Alongside a prodigious output of prints, he created eight sketchbooks of drawings over the course of 30 years. This double-sided sheet comes from the so-called Album B, or Madrid Album, which, like all of them, was scattered throughout the world in public and private collections after his death. The drawings reveal Goya’s powers of invention and observation, and his biting satire. On the recto side of the sheet, a vulgar encounter between a prostitute and a pot-bellied lecher reveals the bluntness of the Goya’s social criticism. The verso drawing is less easily pinned down, though it follows traditional iconography for representations of Saint Margaret of Cortona, a nobleman’s mistress who repented and entered a convent after her lover’s dog led her to his murdered corpse. Image and data from the Cleveland Museum of Art, released under Creative Commons Zero (CC0).

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