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Francisco Goya
Francisco Goya (1746 - 1828) was a Spanish oil painting
artist and printmaker. Goya was a portraitist and court painter to
the Spanish Crown, a chronicler of history, and, in his unofficial
work, a revolutionary and a visionary. He has been regarded both as
the last of the old masters and as the first of the moderns. The
subversive and subjective element in his art, as well as his bold
handling of paint, provided a model for the work of later
generations of artists, notably
Édouard Manet and
Pablo Picasso.
Many of Goya's works are on display at the Museo del Prado in
Madrid.
Goya began his painting career just after the late Baroque period.
In expressing his thoughts and feelings frankly, as he did, he
became the pioneer of new artistic tendencies which were to come to
fruition in the 19th century. Two trends dominated the art of his
contradictory; they actually were not. Together they represented
the reaction against previous conceptions of art and the desire for
a new form of expression. In order to understand the scope of
Goya's art, and to appreciate the principles which governed his
development and tremendous versatility, it is essential to realise
that his work extended over a period of more than 60 years, for he
continued to draw and paint until his 82nd year.
The importance of this factor is evident between his attitude
towards life in his youth, when he accepted the world as it was
quite happily, in his manhood when he began to criticise it, and in
his old age when he became embittered and disillusioned with people
and society. Furthermore, the world changed completely during his
lifetime. The society, in which he had achieved a great success
disappeared during the Napoleonic war. Long before the end of the
18th century Goya had already turned towards his new ideals and
expressed them in his graphic art and in his paintings.
Please visit our gallery of
Francisco Goya Oil Painting Reproduction.
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