Francisco Goya As A Court Painter

Francisco José de Goya y Lucientes, more popularly known as Francisco de Goya, was a Spanish artist and printmaker. His works embody intense emotion, subjectivity, imagination, and other elements of Romanticism, an artistic movement that favored the ancient customs of Medievalism over Classicism and Rationalism.

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Goya achieved his first popular success in the 1770s when he began working for the Spanish royal court. In addition to his commissioned works for Spanish nobility, he created art that commented on societal issues. He used his craft to criticize the socio-political turmoil around him during the Enlightenment and in times of war.

Additionally, artist Francisco Goya occupies a unique position within the history of Western art. His art depicted contemporary historical upheavals; his bold painting style and the subversive imaginative element in his art largely influenced later generations of painters. He thus became known as the last of the old art masters and the first of the modern masters, titles befitting of his artistry.

Early Life

Francisco de Goya was born in Spain, to the family of José Benito de Goya y Franque and Gracia de Lucientes y Salvador on March 30th 1746. He was the couple’s fourth child, following two sisters and a brother; his parents also had two other sons after him. The family was lower-class, but they were well-known in their community. The patriarch worked as a gilder who specialized in religious and decorative craftwork. As a cathedral architect, he oversaw the gilding and most of the ornamentation to rebuild the beautiful Basilica Santa Maria del Pilar, the central cathedral of Zaragoza.

Goya lived out his childhood in Fuendetodos, where his family lived before moving to the city of Zaragoza in the family’s newly bought home. Goya attended school at Escuelas Pias, a local public school that offered free education. He met and became friends with Martin Zapater around this time, and their correspondence from the 1770s to the 1790s proved valuable in knowing more about artist Francisco de Goya and his years at the Royal Court in Madrid.

At age 14, Goya studied as an apprentice under local painter José Luzán. Later, he moved to Madrid to study under Anton Raphael Mengs, a famous German painter with the Spanish nobility. In 1763 and 1766, Goya applied for the Royal Academy of Fine Art in hopes of gaining entrance, but he failed on both attempts.

Early Family

After failing to earn a scholarship from the Academy, Goya relocated to Rome at his own expense. As accounts of his visit to Rome are scant, it is impossible to ascertain. Still, it is said that Goya possibly completed two surviving mythological paintings during the visit, titled Sacrifice to Pan and Sacrifice to Vesta.

Upon returning to Zaragoza in 1771, he painted frescoes for the local cathedral and the Sobradiel Palace. These works of artist Francisco Goya were done in the decorative Baroque-Rococo style and established Goya as an artist. He studied under the Aragonese artist Francisco Bayeu y Subías and married his sister Josefa.

This marriage and Francisco Bayeu’s membership in the Royal Academy of Fine Art helped Goya secure commissions to create designs for the Royal Tapestry Factory. For five years, he designed patterns used to decorate the bare stone walls of El Escorial and the Palacio Real del Pardo, which were located in Madrid. Goya’s artistry caught the attention of Spanish monarchs, who later granted him access to the royal court.

Court Painter

In 1783, Goya was commissioned by the Count of Floridablanca to paint a portrait of King Charles III. He formed a friendship with the King’s half-brother Luis, and soon Goya had the King and other elite members of the kingdom as patrons. By 1786, he earned the salaried position of Court Painter to Charles III. Later in 1799, he was appointed as First Court Painter, the highest position available to artists at the Royal Court of Madrid.

Goya earned commissions from the highest quarters of the Spanish elite, including notable individuals like the 9th Duke of Osuna, Pedro Téllez-Girón, and his wife María Josefa Pimentel, 12th Countess-Duchess of Benavente, Duke of Alba and his wife María del Pilar de Silva, José Álvarez de Toledo, and María Ana de Pontejos y Sandoval, Marchioness of Pontejos.

At the peak of his dealings with the Spanish Court, influential Prime Minister Manuel de Godoy commissioned some works from the artist for his private collection; this collection includes the infamous La Maja Desnuda (Nude Maja). The painting led to widespread speculation about the sitter’s identity, sparking rumors about an illicit affair between Goya, Godoy, and two separate women.

He painted several individual portraits of the King and queen in the following years from 1799 to 1801. After 1801 Goya seldom received royal commissions, but he retained his annual salary and other allowances. He continued to serve until the Napoleonic invasion of Spain in 1808.

Napoleon’s invasion of Spain and the Peninsular War provided Goya with ample opportunity to observe and critique society. The war inspired works like The Second of May 1808 and The Third of May 1808 and the portfolio of etchings he titled The Disasters of War. Nonetheless, Goya continued to earn commissions from the new regime after pledging his allegiance to the Bonapartists.

After the restoration of the Spanish monarchy in 1814, Goya withdrew entirely from public life. He was pardoned for serving the French, but the new King did not favor his work. As a result, information on his later life is rather scarce; he died in 1828.

The Artist Fondly Honoured

Goya is considered the most relevant Spanish artist of the late 18th to early 19th centuries. The annual Spanish national film awards are called the Goyas in honor of the painter Francisco de Goya. Many of his famous paintings are at the Prado art museum, Madrid.

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