Francisco Goya

Francisco Goya was court painter to the Spanish crown and produced some of the most unsparing images of violence ever made. Born in Fuendetodos, Aragon in 1746 to a gilder, he trained in Zaragoza, was twice rejected by the Royal Academy in Madrid, travelled to Italy at his own expense, and began by designing cartoons for the royal tapestry factory. He rose steadily, becoming a member of the Royal Academy in 1780 and First Court Painter in 1799. His group portrait of Charles IV and his family is remarkable for how little it flatters them. In 1793 he suffered an illness that left him completely deaf, and his work darkened. Los Caprichos, a set of eighty etchings published in 1799, satirised superstition, clerical corruption and social folly; one plate is captioned that the sleep of reason produces monsters. He withdrew them from sale after two days under threat from the Inquisition. Napoleon's forces occupied Spain in 1808. Goya continued to work under the French while recording what he saw: The Disasters of War, eighty-two prints made between 1810 and 1820 and not published until 1863, show mutilation, famine and rape without heroism or side. The Second of May and The Third of May 1808, painted in 1814, show the Madrid rising and the firing squads that followed; the man with raised arms before the faceless rifles set the pattern for modern war painting. Between 1819 and 1823 he covered the walls of his own house with the fourteen Black Paintings, including Saturn Devouring His Son, made for nobody. He left absolutist Spain for Bordeaux in 1824 and died there in 1828.

• Lived: 1746 CE – 1828 CE
• Nationality: Spanish
• Roles: painter, printmaker