Summary
A compelling biography rich in historical detail, Francisco Goya tells the dramatic story of this early 19th-century artist who painted against the backdrop of European conflict. Between the opening of the French Revolution in 1789 and the end of the Napoleonic Wars in 1815, Spanish artist Francisco Goya painted what he saw around him, everything from peasants to priests, majas to monarchs, courtesans to country folk. Goya’s Spain was a nation struggling to enter the modern world, even as it tolerated inept kings, scheming queens, and militaristic prime ministers. In time, revolutionary ideas and a spirit of liberalism spread across the Spanish landscape, providing Goya with fresh subjects and a new approach to art, embodied in this same spirit—Romanticism. But Goya also had a darker side, one that would forever haunt him, not only during his lifetime, but also in the artistic legacy he left behind.