Francisco Goya

NAME Francisco José de Goya y Lucientes — though he only began using the aristocratic “de” after becoming a painter to the Spanish royal household.

WHAT FAMOUS FOR One of Spain’s most important painters and printmakers, Goya is often considered both the last of the Old Masters and the first of the moderns. He is famous for works like The Third of May 1808, his satirical Los Caprichos etchings, and his haunting Black Paintings.

BIRTH Francisco de Goya was born on March 30, 1746, in Fuendetodos, a small village in northern Spain near Zaragoza, in the region of Aragón. He was born unexpectedly in his mother's birthplace, as his parents actually lived in Zaragoza where they had married in 1736.

FAMILY BACKGROUND Goya came from a middle-class family. His father, José Benito de Goya y Franque, was a gilder who worked with precious metals and gold leaf on picture frames. His mother, Gracia de Lucientes y Salvador, came from a family of wealthy farmers. 

Francisco was the fourth of six siblings: Rita (1737), Tomás (1739, who also became a gilder), Jacinta (1743), Mariano (1750, who died in infancy), and Camilo (1753), who became a clergyman and served as chaplain of the Collegiate Church of Chinchón in 1784. 

The family's house in Fuendetodos bore his mother's family coat of arms, indicating some social pretensions despite their modest circumstances.

CHILDHOOD Around 1749, when Goya was three years old, his family moved from Fuendetodos to Zaragoza, where they had purchased a house.

Goya's childhood was spent in Zaragoza, where his family had a modest but respectable standing due to his father's trade. He showed an early aptitude for drawing. 

EDUCATION  Goya likely attended the school of the Piarist Fathers (Escuelas Pías) in Zaragoza, though this is not definitively documented. During his school years, he formed a close friendship with Martin Zapater, and their extensive correspondence from the 1770s to the 1790s provides valuable insights into Goya's early career and personal life.

At age 13-14, Goya began his formal artistic education as an apprentice to José Luzán y Martínez (1710-1785), a local painter in Zaragoza who had studied in Naples. Under Luzán's tutelage, Goya spent four years copying prints and learning the fundamentals of painting. He then moved to Madrid to study with Anton Raphael Mengs, a German painter popular with Spanish royalty, but clashed with his master and performed poorly in his examinations. 

Goya submitted entries for admission to the Royal Academy of Fine Arts in 1763 and 1766 but was rejected both times. In 1770-71, seeking to further his education, Goya traveled to Rome at his own expense, where he studied classical works and won second prize in a painting competition organized by the Academy of Fine Arts at Parma.

Self-portrait by Goya around 1773

CAREER RECORD 1771 After returning from Italy in 1771, Goya received his first major commission to paint frescoes for the cupola of the Basilica of the Pillar in Zaragoza.

1775 Began painting designs for the Royal Tapestry Factory in Madrid.

1786 Appointed Painter to the King in 1786, later becoming First Court Painter to Charles IV.

1799 He achieved the highest position possible for a Spanish court painter: Primer Pintor de Cámara (Prime Court Painter).

1819, Goya withdrew into near isolation, covering the walls of his house, the “Quinta del Sordo,” with the Black Paintings. These 14 works, including Saturn Devouring His Son, were never meant for public display.

APPEARANCE Goya was of medium eight with dark hair and a strong, solid build. His self-portraits show a sharp-eyed gaze and a prominent nose.  In his later years, he appeared distinguished but weathered by age and illness. 

Portrait of Goya by Vicente López (1826),

FASHION Goya dressed in the fashion of his time, often wearing formal attire suitable for a court painter, including frock coats and breeches.

CHARACTER Historical accounts portray Goya as a man of striking contradictions. Joaquín Aznar Molina described his temperament as “fundamentally generous, warm, and sociable, but with a tendency toward violence under physical or emotional strain.” Ambitious and socially mobile, Goya sought recognition and honors at court, yet his private works reveal a sharp, questioning mind and moral unease. His commissioned portraits could flatter with elegance, while his satirical prints and later paintings stripped away pretension, exposing corruption, cruelty, and the darker sides of human nature. (1)

SPEAKING VOICE Contemporaries described him as plainspoken, with a directness that matched his paintings.

In 1792–93, Goya suffered a severe illness that left him completely and permanently deaf at the age of 46. The loss profoundly affected his ability to communicate and forced him to withdraw from teaching at the Royal Academy of San Fernando, as he explained in a letter of 1795, noting he could no longer follow what was being said. Cut off from ordinary social exchange, Goya lived in increasing isolation — a circumstance often linked to the darker, more introspective tone that came to dominate his later work.

SENSE OF HUMOUR Goya possessed a sharp wit and satirical sensibility that permeated much of his work. His print series "Los Caprichos" demonstrates his capacity for biting social satire, using humor to critique the follies and vices of Spanish society. 

 Contemporary observers praised his "witty, satirical" drawings that revealed social hypocrisy through clever visual jokes. His humor ranged from playful to dark, often serving as a vehicle for serious social commentary.

RELATIONSHIPS On July 25, 1773, Goya married Josefa Bayeu, sister of the established artist Francisco Bayeu y Subías, whom he had studied under. The ceremony took place at the church of San Martín in Madrid. This was considered a strategic marriage that connected Goya to an influential artistic family. Francisco Bayeu was already an established court painter to Charles III and a member of the Royal Academy of Fine Art since 1765, which helped advance Goya's career prospects.

Josefa Bayeu, charcoal sketch, Goya, 1805

The couple had seven children together, but only one son, Francisco Javier de Goya (nicknamed Xavier), survived to adulthood.

After his wife's death in 1812, Goya lived with Leocadia Weiss (also known as Leocadia Zorrilla), who was significantly younger than him and may have been his lover. She accompanied him during his exile in Bordeaux and lived with him at the Quinta del Sordo despite still being married to Isidoro Weiss. There is speculation that Leocadia's daughter Rosario may have been Goya's child.

Goya maintained important friendships and professional relationships throughout his career, including his lifelong correspondence with Martin Zapater and his connections with liberal aristocrats at court who became both patrons and friends.

MONEY AND FAME Goya enjoyed substantial financial success and fame during his lifetime. By 1799, when he was appointed First Court Painter, he earned a salary of 50,000 reales (roughly equivalent to $250,000 today), along with allowances to maintain a coach and horses. Reflecting on his position, he remarked: “I have now established myself in a most enviable manner. Those who require something of me must seek me out — I remain apart. I work for no one unless he is a high-ranking personality or a friend.” His prosperity enabled him to purchase the country estate known as the Quinta del Sordo in 1819. (2)

FOOD AND DRINK Francisco de Goya worked in the Madrid restaurant Cafe Botin as a waiter before he was accepted into the Royal Academy of Fine Arts. (3)

Goya was Spanish to the core, likely enjoying traditional Aragonese cuisine, though specific records of his tastes are scarce.

ARTISTIC CAREER Francisco Goya’s career is one of those great European stories where a talented village lad ends up not only rubbing shoulders with kings but also quietly dismantling the entire art world while he’s at it. He began, rather humbly, at the age of 14 in Zaragoza, learning to daub religious frescoes under José Luzán. It wasn’t glamorous, but it gave him the basics. He later polished his skills in Madrid and Rome, absorbing the classical styles and trying his hand at the sort of church paintings that, while perfectly competent, wouldn’t exactly stop traffic today.

Things really got going in 1775 when he was set to work on tapestry cartoons for the Royal Tapestry Factory. Now, tapestries may not sound thrilling, but Goya turned them into bustling little snapshots of Spanish life — picnics, street games, flirting couples — that were far livelier than the monarchs probably expected on their palace walls. This caught the eye of the right people, and soon he was hobnobbing with dukes and duchesses, painting their portraits with such perceptive realism that many of them must have wondered why they hadn’t just stuck with wigs and powdered smiles.

Goya's tapestry cartoon La caza del jabalí (The Boar Hunt) 1775

By 1786, he was officially Court Painter to King Charles III, and by 1799, under Charles IV, he had ascended to First Court Painter — the pinnacle for any artist of his day. His portraits of the royals are marvels: grand, imposing, and yet often with a faint whiff of “good heavens, these people run the country?” about them. Goya’s genius lay in showing the truth beneath the brocade.

Then, in 1792, disaster struck. A severe illness left him permanently deaf at just 46. Imagine the impact in a society that revolved around salons and chatter. From then on, Goya lived largely in silence — which, understandably, had a profound effect on his art. His paintings became darker, stranger, more personal. Instead of flattering dukes and cardinals, he turned his attention to madhouses, lunatics, and the shadows in human nature.

His printmaking, meanwhile, exploded with invention. Los Caprichos (1799) was a biting satire of Spanish society, skewering superstition and corruption with the kind of gleeful savagery that surely made bishops and courtiers squirm. Later, The Disasters of War (1810–1820) depicted the atrocities of Napoleon’s invasion in unflinching detail — mutilations, executions, starvation — the sort of thing no one else was brave enough to put to paper at the time. These works didn’t just document war; they screamed its horrors.

By 1819, Goya had retreated to a villa on the edge of Madrid called the Quinta del Sordo — “House of the Deaf Man,” which, considering he was deaf himself, must have felt a touch ironic. There, he painted directly onto the walls 14 deeply unsettling works now known as the Black Paintings. They feature witches, grotesques, and of course Saturn Devouring His Son, in which a giant figure frantically gnaws on a body. He never titled these paintings, never explained them, and certainly never meant them to be shown. They were essentially private exorcisms of his own demons, both personal and national.

Spain became politically stifling, so in 1824, Goya exiled himself to Bordeaux, where he lived quietly, sketching, experimenting with lithography, and producing his Bulls of Bordeaux. He died there in 1828, aged 82, leaving behind a body of work that is both vast and astonishingly varied.

By the time he was finished, Goya had produced nearly 700 paintings, 280 prints, and thousands of drawings. More importantly, he had bridged centuries: the last great Old Master, yes, but also the first to fling open the door to modernism. Without him, there is no Manet, no Picasso, perhaps even no modern visual imagination as we know it.

MUSIC AND ARTS Goya's tapestry cartoons often depicted scenes of popular entertainment, including musical performances and dancing, showing his familiarity with Spanish folk culture. 

As court painter, he would have been involved in the broader cultural life of the Spanish court, which included musical performances and theatrical entertainments. 

LITERATURE Francisco Goya was deeply engaged with the literature and philosophy of his time. His print series, Los Caprichos, features captions and inscriptions that reveal his sharp intellect and familiarity with the intellectual debates of the Enlightenment. His art frequently critiques superstition, religious authority, and social corruption, echoing the principles of Enlightenment thinkers. While few of Goya's personal writings exist, his body of work strongly suggests he was well-read and a keen observer of the literary and philosophical currents of his era.

NATURE Goya's relationship with nature evolved throughout his career. His early tapestry cartoons often featured outdoor scenes and natural settings depicting Spanish countryside life. However, his famous late work showing a dog's head emerging from or sinking into earth demonstrates a more existential engagement with natural themes. 

PETS Goya showed remarkable skill and interest in depicting animals throughout his career. His portrait of Don Manuel Osorio Manrique de Zuñiga features an elaborate menagerie including cats, a magpie, and caged finches, which are rendered with exceptional attention to their individual personalities and behaviors. 

Don Manuel Osorio Manrique de Zuñiga 1787-88

In his satirical prints, Goya frequently used animals symbolically - donkeys, monkeys, dogs, bats, owls, and cats all appear with specific meanings related to human follies and characteristics. 

His Los Caprichos series includes numerous animal figures that serve as allegories for human behavior, demonstrating his close observation of animal nature and his ability to imbue them with symbolic meaning.

HOBBIES AND SPORTS  Bullfighting fascinated him, as evidenced by his La Tauromaquia series of prints depicting various aspects of the sport. His final work, created in Bordeaux, included the lithograph series known as the Bulls of Bordeaux, showing bullfighting scenes that demonstrate his continued fascination with this quintessentially Spanish spectacle. The print below shows the celebrated Spanish-American matador Mariano Ceballos, 

As a court painter, he would have been familiar with aristocratic leisure activities including hunting, as he created numerous hunting scenes for royal tapestries.

SCIENCE AND MATHS While not a scientist, Goya's work, particularly his anatomical drawings, shows an interest in the human form and a keen observational eye, reflecting the Age of Enlightenment's focus on reason and empirical observation.

PHILOSOPHY & THEOLOGY Goya’s art reflects a complex and often contradictory engagement with philosophy and theology. Though nominally Catholic and responsible for many religious commissions, his satirical works reveal deep skepticism toward ecclesiastical authority and superstition. In Los Caprichos (1799), for example, he caricatured the clergy as grotesque, greedy figures, exposing corruption within the Church. 

Many scholars see him as aligned with Enlightenment ideals, favoring reason and critical inquiry over dogma. Yet the stark pessimism of his later Black Paintings suggests disillusionment not only with traditional faith but also with Enlightenment optimism. These dark, unsettling images confront themes of madness, suffering, and the fragility of human morality. Ultimately, Goya’s work wrestles with enduring questions about good and evil, belief and doubt, and the shadowed corners of the human condition.

POLITICS Goya's political positions were complex and evolved throughout his life. He is generally considered to have held liberal views supportive of Enlightenment reforms. During the Napoleonic occupation, he served both Spanish and French authorities, suggesting pragmatic rather than ideologically driven political behavior. He initially may have welcomed some French reforms but became disillusioned with the brutality of the occupation, as shown in his Disasters of War series. 

After Ferdinand VII's restoration in 1814, Goya was questioned about his service to the French but was ultimately pardoned. 

SCANDAL Goya's most famous scandal involved his painting La Maja Desnuda (The Nude Maja), which led to an investigation by the Spanish Inquisition for obscenity. The painting, created around 1797-1800, was groundbreaking for its frank depiction of female nudity, including pubic hair, which was unprecedented in Spanish art. The work was commissioned by Manuel de Godoy and kept in his private collection along with its clothed companion piece. The Inquisition demanded to know the identity of the nude model, but Goya was ultimately cleared when art experts declared the painting part of an established artistic tradition. The controversy was intensified by speculation that the model was the Duchess of Alba, with whom Goya was rumored to have had an affair.

MILITARY RECORD Goya had no military service record and was not a soldier. However, he extensively documented military events and their consequences through his art. During the Peninsular War (1808-1814), he remained in Madrid and created his famous series The Disasters of War, which depicted the horrors and brutalities of the conflict. He painted portraits of military figures from both sides of the conflict, including Spanish and French generals, and notably the Duke of Wellington in 1812. 

His paintings The Second of May 1808 and The Third of May 1808 commemorate the Spanish uprising against French occupation and its aftermath.

The Third of May 1808

HEALTH AND PHYSICAL FITNESS Goya's health was severely compromised by a mysterious illness in 1792-93 that left him permanently deaf. The illness, which struck when he was 46, included symptoms of headaches, dizziness, tinnitus, vision problems, hallucinations, paralysis in his right arm, and gradual weight loss. Modern medical experts suggest he may have suffered from Susac's syndrome (an autoimmune condition) or syphilis. The illness marked a turning point in his art, leading to darker, more pessimistic works. Despite his health challenges, Goya continued working productively for another 35 years until his death at age 82. In 1828, he suffered a stroke that left him partially paralyzed and unable to speak, leading to his death .

HOMES  Goya's family purchased a house in Zaragoza around 1749, which served as his childhood home.

As court painter, Goya maintained residences in Madrid to fulfill his official duties and be close to the royal court.

In February 1819, at age 72, Goya purchased a country estate on the banks of the Manzanares River outside Madrid. Known as "Quinta del Sordo" (Villa of the Deaf Man), the property was named after a previous deaf owner, not Goya himself. The house initially had two main rooms measuring 9 by 4.5 meters each, to which Goya added a kitchen wing. It was here that he painted his famous Black Paintings directly on the plaster walls between 1819-1823. The house was demolished in 1909, but the paintings were transferred to canvas and are now in the Prado Museum.

In 1824, Goya moved to Bordeaux, France, for his voluntary exile, where he lived in retirement until his death in 1828.

Birth house of Francisco Goya, Fuendetodos, Zaragoza by Diego Delso,

TRAVEL Goya traveled to Rome in 1770 at his own expense to deepen his study of classical art and refine his technique. While there, he entered a competition at the Academy of Fine Arts in Parma, winning second prize — an early sign of the recognition his talent would attract.

Over the course of his career, Goya moved frequently between Madrid, Zaragoza, and other Spanish cities, balancing royal commissions with visits to family and patrons. These travels kept him connected both to the Spanish court and to his regional roots.

In 1824, concerned about political reprisals following the fall of Spain’s liberal government, Goya left for voluntary exile in Bordeaux, France. He returned briefly to Madrid in 1826 to petition King Fernando VII for retirement on full pay, which was granted. He spent his final years in Bordeaux, where he continued to experiment artistically until his death in 1828.

DEATH Francisco Goya died on April 16, 1828, in Bordeaux, France, at the age of 82. On April 1, 1828, he suffered a stroke that left him unable to speak and partially paralyzed. He died peacefully in his retirement home in Bordeaux. His grandson Mariano arrived in Bordeaux with his mother 19 days before Goya's death  and it was Mariano who gave formal notification of the artist's death. Goya was initially buried in Bordeaux, though his remains were later repatriated to Spain.

APPEARANCES IN MEDIA Goya's life and work have been extensively featured in various media forms. 

Spanish cinema has been particularly drawn to his story, with 81 films from 1926-2011 featuring Goya as a subject or inspiration. Notable cinematic treatments include The Naked Maja (dealing with his relationship with the Duchess of Alba and the scandal surrounding his famous nude painting). 

Television documentaries have explored his life and art, including shows by art commentators like Matthew Collings and Robert Hughes. 

In his honor, Spain's main national film awards are called the Goya Awards.

Museums worldwide regularly feature exhibitions of his work, and his paintings continue to be among the most studied and reproduced in art history.

ACHIEVEMENTS Court painter to multiple Spanish monarchs.

Revolutionary approaches to portraiture and history painting.

Created The Disasters of War, one of the starkest anti-war series ever produced.

His Black Paintings, though never meant for public display, are seen today as precursors to modern expressionism.

Influenced generations of artists, from Édouard Manet to Pablo Picasso.

Sources: (1) Science Direct (2) Christies (3) Encyclopadia of Trivia