Spanish painter and engraver born in Fuendetodos, Zaragoza, one of the great masters of Spanish painting and world engraving in the 19th and 20th centuries. Son of the master decorator José de Goya and Gracia Lucientes, he began his studies in Zaragoza, taught by the painter José Luzán, educated in Naples, professor at the Academy of Drawing in Zaragoza. As a young man he obtained a scholarship to the Real Academia de San Fernando in Madrid, where he became a pupil of the Spanish court painter Francisco Bayeu. He went to Italy to continue his studies (1770), by his own means, returning the following year to Zaragoza, where he was commissioned to paint the conventional frescoes in the chapel of Nuestra Señora del Pilar, in Zaragoza This work was carried out in spaces for the next ten years, until it became incompatible with the Junta da Basilica de Nossa Senhora do Cornerstone. He married (1773) the sister of Francisco Bayeu and, called by his brother-in-law, moved to Madrid (1775).
Indicated by his brother-in-law, he was commissioned to paint the first series of cards, from a batch that would end up in 60 paintings (1792), for the Royal Tapestry Factory of Santa Bárbara, a work directed by the German artist Anton Raphael Mengs, one of the exponents of neoclassicism and artistic director of the Spanish court, with the title of First Painter of the Chamber. He became a member of the Royal Academy of San Fernando de Madrid, being admitted with a painting entitled Christ on the Cross (1780). He was named court painter (1786) by Charles III, an appointment confirmed by Charles IV. He painted The Meadow of Saint Isidro (1787). From the following decade onwards, he began to demonstrate his realistic inclinations (1792) by drifting towards eroticism. Traveling through Andalusia (1792), he fell seriously ill, not recovering until the following year, but became deaf.
Appointed first court painter (1799), he reached the height of prestige, and held the position until the throne was occupied (1808) by José Bonaparte. After completing his most famous collection, The Disasters of War (1810-1814), in which the artist recalls the atrocities of the invasions Napoleons in Spain, he returned to his post at court (1814) with Fernando VII, but the restoration of absolutism led him to isolate himself at Quinta del Sordo. He produced the collection of prints Tauromaquia (1816) showing the feats and celebrated heroes of the plaza de toros and then he made the last of his sets of engravings and the most difficult to approach, the Disparates (1819). He moved (1824) to Bordeaux, France, where he died after four years.
Also known were the works Conde de Floridablanca (1783), the official paintings of the new king, Carlos IV, and queen, Maria Luísa (1789), Os Caprichos (1797-1799), aquatint work with 80 engravings and given to the king in exchange for a pension for his son Francisco Xavier, then aged 15, O Manicómio (1799), the his famous portrait of the Spanish royal family (1800-1801) and ending with portraits of the Marquis of San Adrián (1804) and Bartilé Sureda (1806), among others many.
Source: Biographies - Academic Unit of Civil Engineering / UFCG
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SCHOOL, Team Brazil. "Francisco José de Goya y Lucientes"; Brazil School. Available in: https://brasilescola.uol.com.br/biografia/francisco-jose-goya-lucientes.htm. Accessed on July 27, 2021.