Francisco Goya Biography

Francisco Jose de Goya y Lucientes was born on March 30, 1746, in a small village of Fuendetodos, in the northeastern Spanish province of Aragon. Goya’s parents are Jose Goya and Engracia Lucientes. They moved to Zaragoza when Francisco was 4 years old. He went to a religious school called the Escuelas Pias de San Anton.

Francisco Goya, considered to be "the Father of Modern Art," 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.

As an artist, Francisco Goya was by temperament far removed from the classicals. In a few works he approached Classical style, but in the greater part of his work the Romantic triumphed.

Goya found employment as a young teenager under the mediocre artist José Luzán, from whom he learned to draw and as was customary, copied prints of several masters.

At the age of 17 he went to Madrid. His style was influenced by two painters who were working there. The last of the great Venetian painters—Tiepolo and the rather cold and efficient neo-classical painter—Antonio Raphael Mengs. In 1763 he entered a competition at the Royal Academy of San Fernando, and failed, as he did in the year 1766. In 1770, he went to Rome and survived by living off his works of art.

In 1773 Goya married Josefa Bayeu, the sister of a close friend who was with the royal court, and later in his life helped him out by taking him into the royal home and recommending him. Then in 1774 Goya was called to create designs called cartoons that were used as tapestries for royal homes. About a year later in October 30, 1775 Goya made 9 cartoons, or tapestries, for King Charles III.

In 1776, Goya was getting paid an annual salary paid by his royal patrons. Many times Goya attempted to be the court painter but was always rejected. On June 29, 1779, Anton Mengs (the court painter) died. Then after that Goya applied for the position but was again rejected. Instead they chose another painter, Mariano Salvador Maella. Then when Goya applied for another position in July 1780, Goya was elected to the Royal Academy of San Fernando, the most important Art Academy of Spain. Then he came to became the assistant director of painting there in 1785.

When the Church of San Francisco el Grande was built in 1781, the king chose Goya and seven others to decorate it. He also won the commission to paint the largest of the church’s altar pieces. Goya and his wife then moved in with the royal family in August and September 1783. Goya became one of the close friends of the king and as he lived with the royal family he was treated as a prince, he had everything. As a going-away gift the family gave him a silver and gold gown for his wife worth 30,000 reales. Then in 1784 Goya became a father to a baby boy named Francisco Javier Pedro.

One of the first times that Goya got sick was in 1777. Then in 1792 his second illness became far more serious, and he spent many months recovering at a friend's house, Sebastian Martinez's home in Cadiz. He suffered from noises in his head, loss of balance, loss of vision, delirium, and paralysis. After this, Goya became permanently deaf. Although all these things happened, they didn’t seem to hold Goya back, on the other hand, they seemed to encourage him even more. This didn’t stop him from continuing to paint.

In 1794 while Goya was married to Josefa Goya he began to have an affair when his wife wasn’t around. He was turning to the Duchess of Alba for emotional support, which in those days was considered a beauty. The duchess was married to the Marquis of Villafranca. Goya and the duchess became lovers at one point, but even now their relationship still remains a mystery. In 1802 the duchess died.

On October 31, 1799, the prime minister Luis de Urquijo honored Goya with the highest position a Spanish artist could achieve, first court painter. That was when he became the most important painter in the nation. While he had this position in the early 1800’s he painted the family of King Charles IV. In 1803 Goya’s lifelong friend Martin Zapater died. This man was one of his best friends in which he would write letters to, confiding many things about his life including his relationship with the Duchess of Alba. Francisco Goya died in 1828