goya - masterpieces in colour

8/3/2019 Goya - Masterpieces in Colour

1/102

XGOYA

MASTERPIECESIN COLOUR.41


2/102


3/102

MASTERPIECESIN COLOUREDITED BY - -M. HENRY ROUJON

GOYA(1746-1826)


4/102

IN THE SAME SERIESREYNOLDSVELASQUEZGREUZETURNERBOTTICELLIROMNEYREMBRANDTBELLINIFRA ANGELICOROSSETTIRAPHAELLEIGHTONHOLMAN HUNTTITIANMILLAISLUINIFRANZ HALSCARLO DOLCIGAINSBOROUGHTINTORETTOVAN DYCKDA VINCIWHISTLERRUBENSBOUCHERHOLBEINBURNE-JONESLE BRUN

CHARDINMILLETRAEBURNSARGENTCONSTABLEMEMLINGFRAGONARDDiJRERLAWRENCEHOGARTHWATTEAUMURILLOWATTSINGRESCOROTDELACROIXFRA LIPPO LIPPIPUVIS DE CHAVANNES' MEISSONIER- GEROMEVERONESEVAN EYCK- FROMENTINMANTEGNA- PERUGINO* ROSA BONHEURi. BASTIEN-LEPAGBGOYA


5/102

PLATE I.FERDINAND GUILLEMARDET( Museum of the Louvre )This personage, who has left no record in history, was one of

those high functionaries, half civil and half military, whom theFirst Republic sent to its armies to supervise the commissary de-partment and also to exercise an espionage over its generals.Goya has given a vigorous rendering of a head that bears thedouble stamp of energy and high breeding ; and the prevailing graytone of this portrait, relieved only by the one dash of brightness inthe tricoloured scarf, forms altogether a work of perfect harmony.


6/102


7/102


8/102


9/102

GOYAY FR. CRASTRETRANSLATED FROM THE FRENCHBY FREDERIC TABER COOPERILLUSTRATED WITH EIGHTREPRODUCTIONS IN COLOUR

FREDERICK A. STOKES COMPANYNEW YORK PUBLISHERS


10/102

^1.

^^yCOPYRIGHT, 1914, BYFREDERICK A. STOKES COMPANY

March, 1914

THE'PLIMPTOM- PRESSNORWOOD-MASS-U-S-A


11/102

CONTENTSPageThe Youth of Goya 21

The Glorious Period 48The Closing Years 77


12/102


13/102

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONSPlate

i. Ferdinand Guillemardet . . . FrontispieceMuseum of the Louvre

II. La Maja Clothed 14Museum of the Prado, MadridIII. The Woman with the Fan .... 24

Museum of the Louvre

IV. Portrait of Goya 34Museum of the Prado, Madrid

V. The Duchess of Alba 40Collection of the Duke of Alba, Madrid

VI. King Charles IV and his Family ... 50Museum of the Prado, Madrid

VII. La Tirana 60Museum of the Prado, Madrid

VIII. Josefa Bayeu 70Museum of the Prado, Madrid


14/102


15/102

/^N a certain clear morning in the year 1760,a monk from the convent of Santa Fe, near

Saragossa, was proceeding leisurely along the roadwhich leads to that city, and reciting his breviaryas he went. Raising his eyes from between twopsalms, he perceived a young lad of some fifteenyears of age deeply absorbed in drawing pictureswith a bit of charcoal on one of the walls whichbounded the way. The monk was a lover of the

XI


16/102

12 GOYAarts and had himself some little skill in drawing.Becoming interested, he drew nearer, and wasamazed at the aptitude shown by the boy. Uponquestioning him, he was much pleased with hisreplies and was completely won by his engagingmanners. Without further reflection, he inquiredthe way to the home of the lad's parents, poorpeasants of the immediate neighbourhood, and hadno difficulty in persuading them to entrust theirson to him, promising to make him a painter ofwhom they would some day be proud.

History has not preserved the name of theworthy monk so kindly disposed to art, but theboy was destined to make his own name illustri-ous: Francisco Jose Goya y Lucientes, the poorson of farming folk of Saragossa, fulfilled thepromises of his patron. He had talent; betteryet, he had genius; he fraternized with princesand with kings, and the renown of his glory re-stored its lost dignity to the art of Spain anddid honour to painting throughout the world.


17/102

PLATE II. LA MAJA (CLOTHED)(Museum of the Prado, Madrid)This reclining woman represents a very characteristic type of

Spanish beauty. Goya has painted this picture under two differentaspects, although in an absolutely identical pose. In one, thewoman is represented completely nude, while here the artist hasclothed her in corselet and trousers. It is asserted that theDuchess of Alba served him as model for both of these pictures.


18/102


19/102


20/102

*. -t


21/102

GOYA 15The advent of Goya in the middle of the eight-

eenth century marks a sort of providential datein the art of the peninsula. The Spanish schoolhad fallen into profound decadence. Of the greattraditions of Velazquez, Ribera, Zurbaran, andEl Greco, nothing survived save the regret ofknowing that they were forever lost. All theprodigious strength and powerful realism of thatglorious period 'had become degenerate, enfeebled,anaemic to the point of utter decrepitude. Inthe horde of artists of that time, not a single handwas capable of taking up the brush let fall by thegreat predecessors. One only in all their number,a certain Claudio Coello, mustered sufficient energyto attempt to carry on the broken tradition.With praiseworthy insistence and undoubted talenthe endeavoured to restore its bygone dignity to thepainting of his time. Among many other note-worthy works, a magnificent canvas from his handmay still be seen in the sacristy of the Escurial.But this unlucky artist, like all the others, had


22/102

i6 GOYAcome too late into a world which had grown tooold. He could no longer be understood. Thesame decadence had overspread the whole ofEurope, but to a greater degree in Spain thanelsewhere. Politics, customs, traditions, populartaste, all bore the imprint of that degeneracywhich heralds the end of a race. What could aClaudio Coello do in a society that had disinte-grated to such a degree? His strength seemed toobrutal, his realism was accused of barbarity, andthe conscientiousness of his line-work caused himto be considered as a painter who had becomeold-fashioned and had fallen behind his times. Allthe favour of that period was bestowed uponthe fa presto school of painting. Luca Giordano,who usurped Coello's place in the regard ofPhilip II., had begun to inundate Spain with hisfacile and spiritless productions. He covered thewalls of the Escurial with frescoes brushed inwith a turn of the wrist, the dexterity of whichill concealed their absolute lack of inspiration.


23/102

GOYA 17In his wake a swarm of Neapolitan painters,equally dexterous, but of even less worth, swoopeddown upon the peninsula, and day by day stillfurther perverted the standard of popular taste.With the dawn of the seventeenth century thedecadence, instead of diminishing, became moreaccentuated. The Neapolitans had been succeededby Frenchmen but what Frenchmen ! Their arthad neither the nobility of Poussin, nor the great-ness of Le Brun, nor the suavity of Le Sueur;they bore such names as Ranc, Hovasse, Louisand Michel Vanloo, and their manner drew itsinspiration from the worst type of compositionbrought into fashion by Mignard. Their wholeeffort was confined to producing the merely pretty,and their tastelessness was absolutely, yet regret-tably, adapted to the growing affectation of thecentury. After them came the turn of the Tie-polos: these latter were not merely remarkablevirtuosos of the palette; their prodigious facilitywas frequently ennobled by genuine talent; their


24/102

i8 GOYAline-work, though too often sHghted, still showeda certain degree of conscientiousness, and some oftheir works are really worthy of admiration. Butthey too were infected with the malady of the cen-tury; they sacrificed themselves to the taste of theirday, which was definitely degraded to the extrava-gances of fashion and the frivolities of gallantry.They were wholly lacking in the ability to impartto this type of painting the vivacious charm whichthe graceful and smiling ease of Watteau, Frago-nard, and Boucher bestowed upon it in France.There was no ground for hoping that they wouldever effect a renaissance of the Spanish school.

Finally Charles III. summoned to Madrid apainter of German origin, Mengs by name, who atthat time was regarded as the Messiah of an artwhich was destined to unite "the grace of Apelles,the expression of Raphael, the chiaroscuro ofCorreggio, and the colouring of Titian!" Un-usually gifted though he was, Mengs did not pos-sess the necessary calibre to fulfil such brilliant


25/102

GOYA 19promises. Haunted by the great compositionsof Le Brun, he confined himself to the mytho-logical order of painting and drew his inspirationfrom his illustrious model, without ever achievingan equal eminence or duplicating the latter's admi-rable skill in composition. Upon his appointmentas Superintendent of Fine-Arts in Spain, he estab-lished a sort of artistic dictatorship, which forcedSpanish painting as a whole to adopt his own specialaesthetic creed. The influence of Mengs wouldhave been even more disastrous than that of hispredecessors, if Providence had not placed Goyain the path of the artist monk of Saragossa.

Goya made his appearance, and with himSpanish art underwent a renewal and an aggran-dizement. With one formidable backward leap,he attained the point of the broken tradition, inorder to reweld the glorious chain. No inter-mediary connects him with the splendid lineageof Spanish painters. He proceeds directly fromthem. He is the natural heir of Velazquez and


26/102

20 GOYAZurbaran. He has their ardour, their vehemence,their passionate love for nature; like them, he findsthe source of his strength in direct observation; aswith them, the secret of his genius resides in thatinner flame which bursts out of bounds in blazingflashes, with no clever trickery, no premeditation,but with that spontaneity which is bom only of aclear vision, aided by a vigorous brush.

Nevertheless, this descendant of bygone mas-ters is the most modern of all Spanish painters.He is never imitative, he always creates. Fromthe living springs of great art he draws only whathe needs to sustain his strength: a pious reverencefor form, conscientiousness in line-work, sobrietyof colour, and harmony of the component parts.For the rest, he is wholly of his own time, and ofnone other than his own time. He is truly thepainter of national Spanish life. What he paintsmost willingly, most gladly, are the dances, thegames, the joyous gatherings, the corridas, full ofardour and of movement, the majas, the manolas,


27/102

GOYA 21the toreros, all the popular types; and one and all,as he pictures them, are spirited, life-like, entertain-ing, and well grouped, standing out boldly againsttheir background of spreading fields, or bathing gailyin the violent clarity of the sunshine of Castile.

When considered under this double aspect,surrounded by the twin aureole of classicism andrealism, Goya is seen to be an exceptional nature.He builds his fantasies upon a solid foundation oftechnique, and it is precisely because he founds hiswork upon this impregnable basis that he is ablewithout apprehension to challenge the judgment offuture centuries, and that his name will descendthrough the ages crowned with an unfading glory.

HIS YOUTHFrancisco Jose Goya was born at Fuendetodos,

in the province of Aragon, on the 13th of March,1746. His father, Jose Goya, and his mother,Gracia Lucientes, were humble peasants and livedupon the product of the sluggish fields that sur-


28/102

22 GOYArounded their modest home. What the childhoodof Jose was, we do not know, for his biographersare silent upon this point. They content them-selves with saying that he aided his parents inthe daily round of tasks upon the farm. As tohis education, it was certainly that of all theyoung peasant boys of the Spanish farming dis-tricts. The child must have acquired the firstrudiments from the village priest, or perhaps fromthe monks of the nearest convent. Reading, writ-ing, and a little arithmetic made up the wholeequipment that young Jose possessed at the ageof fifteen. How his taste for drawing was firstborn, what occurrence or what object awakenedhis artistic instinct, we do not know. Perhaps,like so many others, he became suddenly con-scious of his vocation at the sight of some of thosecruel and violent pictures representing scenes of thePassion, such as abound in Spanish churches, andit is not unlikely that his youthful soul receiveda profound and lasting impression.


29/102

PLATE III.THE WOMAN WITH THE FAN( Museum of the Louvre )

The Louvre is not rich in works by Goya; it possesses only four.But the portrait of a woman, which is here reproduced, belongs tothe period of the painter's second manner, in which a mostprecise realism went hand in hand with a vaporous lightnessand a pervading grayness of tone that recalls the most deli-cate creations of Prudhon. But the execution is vigorous, andin the expression of the face and in the employment of the coloursthere are a sureness and an intensity that are remarkable.


30/102


31/102


32/102


33/102

GOYA 25However this may be, at the age of fifteen

Goya could handle his pencil with sufficient assur-ance to astonish the worthy monk of Saragossa,who was a judge of such matters. The latterconducted his young protege to the city, and afew days later entered him as a pupil in the studioof Don Jose Lujan Martinez.

This Lujan was a Saragossan by birth, but hehad studied painting in Naples under the guidanceof Mastreolo. Possessing considerable talent, heenjoyed a great reputation in his native city.Upon his return from Italy, he had founded afree school of design, a sort of academy whichwas maintained wholly by his own contributions,both of money and of time.

Among the artists who were trained in thisstudio, there were some who left names highlyesteemed in Spain: Beraton, Vallespin, AntonioMartinez the goldsmith, and Francisco Bayeu deSubias. With the last named of this group Goya


34/102

26 GOYAformed a particular attachment, notwithstandingthat Bayeu was twelve years the elder.

Goya remained in Lujan's studio for betweenfour and five years. His fiery and impulsivetemperament had already begun to declare itself,and his master did not always succeed in moder-ating his exuberance. He manifested an extraor-dinary diligence in his work, he was enamouredof his art, and showed exceptional aptitude for it.From the first months he became the most inter-esting feature in the studio; his imagination, hisenthusiasm, his assurance often surprised his mas-ter and stupefied his comrades, who were accus-tomed to a calmer and less violent manner ofpainting. At this epoch his character was alreadybeginning to form; one could foresee in him theman that he was destined to be throughout hislife. He was no less ardent in his pleasures thanin his work. He was the true type of the hot-headed Aragonais, and at the age of nineteenrevealed himself, headstrong, turbulent, a born


35/102

GOYA 27fighter. He threw himself, heart and soul, intothe battles that occurred so frequently at thattime throughout Aragon between the young menof the different parishes. Uniting in rival gangs,fiercely jealous of one another, they were alwaysready on holiday evenings to settle some questionof superiority, and any excuse for an encounterwas welcomed by them. More than once, for thegreater honour of San Luis or of Nuestra Senoradel Pilar, the club and knife scattered blood overthe streets and suburbs of Saragossa.

Goya took part in all these battles, flung him-self into them, body and soul, tumultuously aidingand abetting this hazardous and adventurous modeof life, which had the flavour of romantic fiction.In the course of one of these collisions, three youngmen belonging to the rival faction were left stiffand stark on the battle-ground. Goya, who was oneof those most directly implicated in the aff"air, waswarned that the Inquisition intended to arrest him.Although it no longer possessed the terrible power


36/102

28 GOYAof earlier times, the Inquisition was even then byno means Hght-handed, and there was still seriousdanger in bringing oneself under its notice. Goyawas well aware of this, and he did not wait for thearrival of the alguazils. That same night he leftthe city and wended his way to Madrid, which, asit happened, it had long been his dream to visit.

In Madrid he once more ran across his friendBayeu, who had been living there for the pasttwo years. Bayeu was drawing a pension fromthe academy of San Fernando, and he also had thegood luck of being favoured by Mengs, the allpowerful Superintendent of Fine-Arts, who hadasked him to collaborate in his great task ofdecorating the royal palace.

Bayeu welcomed his young comrade with openarms and invited him to have a share in hispresent work. But we must infer that Mengs'stechnique and method of teaching were alreadydispleasing to Goya, for he courteously declined theoffer. In any case, he had not come to Madrid in


37/102

GOYA 29search of employment, but for the purpose ofcontinuing his education. All day long he visitedthe artistic marvels of the capital, made therounds of churches and convents, studied theold masters, executed copies, and even penetratedinto the royal dwellings in order to admire theworks of art which they contained, observingextensively, reflecting, comparing, and, in a word,equipping his profound intelligence with preciousmaterial for the future. But in Madrid, just as inSaragossa, work was not allowed to interfere withhis pleasures. He was always to be found in questof adventure; he roamed the streets, sword undercape and guitar in hand, serenading the sparklingblack eyes that looked down laughingly at himfrom the ambush of their window-blinds, and stirringhusbands to a jealous fury; or again, breaking thepeace with a crowd of boisterous companions; orstill again, scaling the balcony of his latest con-quest, **and thus playing the prelude to that rep-utation of an audacious, swash-buckling Don Juan,


38/102

30 GOYAwhich later was destined to earn him, even amongthe lower classes, an incredible notoriety."

At this period Goya was a young man ofhaughty presence, somewhat below the averagestature, but exceedingly well proportioned. Al-though his features lacked regularity, his face wasattractive. It had a pleasant air of joviality andfrankness; there was a sparkle to his eye and alurking spirit of mischief around his lips. He had,furthermore, an affable manner, an unabashed as-surance, a mad bravado, and the impudence of alackey. Thanks to the friends whom he had gained,he was favourably received by a goodly number ofdistinguished families, where the charm of his per-sonality played havoc with the hearts of the women.

This agreeable pastime could not fail to entailits own dangers, as Goya was not long in learn-ing by experience. On a certain fine evening,when he had doubtless been lurking beneath somebalcony, he was picked up in an obscure sidestreet, where he lay stretched at full length, with


39/102

GOYA 31a gaping poignard thrust in his back. It wasnecessary to keep him hidden for a time, in orderto protect him from the unwelcome curiosity of thepoHce; and later, when the affair had become noisedabroad, he was forced to quit Madrid, just as hehad quitted Saragossa, clandestinely, without evenwaiting for his wound to be completely healed.

In order to give his escapade a chance to beforgotten, Goya, who for some time past haddesired to visit Italy, set sail, with Rome for hisdestination.

From the moment of his arrival he camefully under the spell of the marvels accumulatedin the Eternal City. He passed entire days inthe presence of the masterpieces of the greatartists. He admired them with all his heart,yet without surrendering his right to independentcriticism. He recognized instinctively that therewas nothing in all these illustrious compositionswhich corresponded to his own personal tempera-ment, and that his fiery soul could ill adapt itself


40/102

32 GOYAto the calculated and almost geometric compositionof the great frescoes in the Vatican. But hepossessed too deep a reverence for art to disdainthe admirable science of those great forerunners.There, beyond question, was the ideal opportunityfor study; and in the presence of those celebratedcanvases he absolutely forgot himself; he ana-lyzed their intimate beauties, compared the stylesand colour schemes of the different schools, scruti-nized their methods, and forced himself to penetrateand understand them. He did not attempt tocopy a single one of them; he felt that he wouldgain nothing by doing so, but that on the con-trary he might lose. This singular method ofabstract study, which may be called the methodof intuition, explains perhaps how so frank anindividuality as that of Goya, far from beingenfeebled by contact with the past, became onthe contrary stronger and more genuinely alive.As a matter of fact, his talent owes nothing, orpractically nothing, to the art of Italy.


41/102

PLATE IV. PORTRAIT OF GOYA( Museum of the Prado, MadridIn this portrait the artist is already old, but his physiognomy has

preserved that vivacity of movement, that expression of penetrationand irony, which made him such a brilliant figure at the Court ofSpain. This work, like every other which bears his signature, isdistinguished by the vigour of its execution and beauty of colouring.


42/102


43/102


44/102


45/102

GOYA 35During his sojourn in Rome, Goya came in

with David. Curious phenomenon; thesenatures who were so different in character and

and whose artistic tastes were almostfelt themselves invincibly attracted

each other. It is true that they bothto an equal degree the philosophic ideas

the period, and that they had the same ideal;the liberation of the people. They werelater, each in his own country, to be

in the full whirlwind of the Revolution;these mutual ties, divined rather than ex-

created between David and Goya anfriendship. Because they liked each other,

appreciated each other's work, in spite of thebetween their talents; and Goya, evenextreme old age, always spoke with emotion of

"great David."In Rome, as in Madrid, Goya was not longdistinguishing himself by perilous escapades.

Carderera relates that at one time "He


46/102

36 GOYAcarved his name with his knife on the lanternof Michelangelo's cupola, on a corner of a certainstone which not one of the artists, German, Eng-lish, or French, who had preceded him in the madascent, had succeeded in reaching; and on anotherday he made the circuit of the tomb of CeciliaMetella, barely supporting himself upon the nar-row projection of the cornice."

But these were merely childish pranks; beforelong he had involved himself in a far more danger-ous adventure, especially in the city of the Popes.He had become infatuated with a young girl inthe higher circles of Roman society, and formedthe project of eloping with her. Being warned intime, the parents placed their daughter beyond hisreach, within the austere shelter of a convent.This setback, however, was not sufficient to dis-courage the gallant artist, it only spurred him onto bolder ventures. He resolved to snatch his fairlady from the very hands of her jailors, and onenight he attempted to invade the convent itself.


47/102

GOYA 37But he was captured and handed over to justice.In order to extricate himself from this awkwarddilemma, far more awkward at Rome than it wouldhave been anywhere else, he was forced to appealto the Spanish ambassador, who intervened anddemanded his surrender by the Holy See. Goyawas restored to liberty, but on condition that heshould take immediate leave of Rome.

He now returned to Saragossa, for the sake ofhis aged parents, with whom he spent the closingmonths of the year 1774, after which he once moreset forth for Madrid. There he again fell in withhis faithful friend, Bayeu, discovered himself tobe in love with the latter's sister, Josefa Bayeu,and married her a few months later.

His brother-in-law again offered to introducehim to Mengs, and this time, weary no doubt ofadventures, he accepted the offer. The Superin-tendent of Fine-Arts gave him a most cordialreception. We have already had occasion to referto the almost despotic authority which Mengs at


48/102

38 GOYAthis period exerted over Spanish art and the singu-lar direction in which he had guided it. In thedecorative works which he was conducting in thepalaces at Madrid and Aranjuez, there was, inthe words of M. Charles Yriarte, ** nothing butan agglomeration of struggles of Titans, apotheoses,triumphs of Hercules, and glorifications of Ceres;but Goya soon came to scale Olympus, and turnVenus into a manola, and substitute his frightfulSaturn devouring his Children, in his Quinta[Goya's country house], for the figure of Father Time,with his traditional stooping shoulders, partaking ofhis progeny with prudence and circumspection."

Up to this moment Goya had been far moreintent upon observing and learning than uponpainting; he had as yet produced nothing, andno one even suspected the powerful faculties thatwere dormant in him. More as a favour to Bayeuthan from any personal confidence, Mengs entrustedhim with the composition of some cartoons forthe royal manufactory of Santa Barbara. Goya


49/102

PLATE v.THE DUCHESS OF ALBA(Collection of the Duke of Alba, Madrid)This superb portrait, the privilege of reproducing which we owe

to his Excellence, the Duke of Alba, was painted by Goya with allthe confidence of genius, guided by gratitude and friendship. Theties of mutual esteem which united the artist and the duchess arewell known, and this portrait in a certain sense constitutes anacknowledgment of it.


50/102


51/102

'^'.


52/102


53/102

GOYA 41set to work, and from the start broke squarelyaway from the superannuated tradition of theSuperintendent. Throwing aside the entire para-phernalia of mythology, he confined his cartoonswholly to subjects borrowed from national life.In this work he gave free rein to the full spon-taneity of his talent and to his riotous imagination,and in the course of it he revealed the full wealthof his imagination and his marvellous instinct fordecorative art. The result was a revelation: agenuine ovation greeted these modern composi-tions, so full of life and movement and colour.Mengs himself, who was not lacking either inintelligence or in taste, was frankly delighted andwarmly congratulated the young artist. At Courtand in the city nothing was talked of but Goyaand his cartoons; from this moment he enteredupon his true role as national painter.

This first attempt had the result of enlighteningGoya as to his own powers. Not that he had pre-viously mistrusted them, but he had feared that he


54/102

42 GOYAwas not yet sufficiently equipped to venture upona public appearance. But on the strength of thesuccess of his cartoons he took stock of himselfas follows: "He was thirty years of age and herealized now that he had only to take his brushin hand in order to become a great painter."

Henceforth, throughout a period of more thanfifty years, he was destined to produce unweariedly,trying his hand at the most diverse types, alter-nating between painting and engraving; and inhis life-work, which, taken as a whole, is one ofthe vastest and most varied that ever came fromany artist, he has given us the measure of hisprodigious fecundity.

He made his debut in genre painting, and hedrew his inspiration straight from the life of thepeople. Spain, for that matter, furnished an excep-tional nutriment for his order of talent; land thatit was of vivid light, ardent colour, picturesque man-ners and curious costumes, it was well designed tofire that vigorous and impulsive nature to the high-


55/102

GOYA 43est pitch of enthusiasm. And hence, while Madridlooked on and marvelled, there came in swift suc-cession from his brush a whole series of picturessaturated with local colour: bull fights, attacks ofbandits, clandestine meetings, processions, masquer-ades, all the life of the Spanish city and the Spanishhighway, reproduced in piquant, accurate, brightlycoloured scenes, of charming naivet6 and exquisitenaturalness, replete with vivacity and riotous fancy.

On closer inspection it would be easy to finda certain amount of incorrectness in the drawing.Some of his bulls, especially, are endowed withanatomical proportions that at best only approxi-mate the truth. But they have such spirit, suchvigour, such nimbleness, such furious agility, thatwe feel ourselves snatched up and borne alongby this living whirlwind, this intensity of move-ment, almost as though we were bodily present inthe arena where the blood-stained drama is in thecourse of enactment. As to the colouring, it isvery light and very luminous and silvery.


56/102

44 GOYAAlmost at the same period Goya published a col-

lection of etchings in which he had reproduced themost celebrated masterpieces of Velazquez. It wasa daring venture, but it had no terrors for the youngartist. Goya did no injustice to Velazquez; he suc-ceeded most felicitously in reproducing in these etch-ings not only the design, but the colour values andcharacteristic spirit of his model. This magnificentseries, executed during the year 1778, comprises six-teen pieces, which to-day are of inestimable value.

That same year the Franciscans went to greatexpense to decorate their church; they appealedto the most renowned artists which Madrid at thatperiod possessed. Goya was entrusted with thedecoration of a chapel which required two paint-ings. The subjects specified were a Christ on theCross and a St. Francis Preaching. The Christ onthe Cross is distinguished by a very fine religiousspirit, enhanced by its admirable drawing and bya dignity quite its own. The fine and delicatemodelling suggests comparison with the most per-


57/102

GOYA 45feet works of Italy; and the whole painting isoverspread with an infinitely light surface coat ofcolour, very luminous and very pale.

This canvas is the best of all Goya's religiousworks. On the contrary, his St. Francis Preachingin no way deserved the vogue which it enjoyed atthe time, both at Court and in the city circles.Its heavy composition, pretentious and ill balanced,did no credit to any of Goya's qualities, save that ofcolourist, in which respect he was always interesting.

Goya was now the idol of the whole popula-tion of Madrid, who revelled in his fantasies andregarded him as their national painter. Alreadycelebrated through his scenes of the life of thepeople, he had now acquired a new prestige throughthe fame of his religious paintings; and therewas good reason for astonishment that he hadnot yet been rewarded by any official honour.His rival painters had scant love for him, or, toput it more frankly, they hated the powerfuloriginality of his talent so far removed from the


58/102

46 GOYAslow product of their uninspired toil. In orderto belittle him, they censured the incorrectness ofhis drawing and the violent character of his sub-jects. But public opinion triumphed over thisdead weight of malevolence. However reluctantly,the Academy of Saint-Marc welcomed him amongits members on the seventh of May, 1780, hailinghim as "academician by merit."

A few months later the Chapter of NuestraSenora del Pilar at Saragossa decided to have itssanctuary decorated and instituted a competitionamong the leading artists of Spain, under thedirection of Goya's brother-in-law, Francisco Bayeu.Goya decided to compete, and one of the vaults,with its adjacent panels, was assigned to him.The sketches which he submitted were only halfsatisfactory, and the Chapter requested him tomodify them. Goya took the criticisms in illpart, imputing them, whether rightly or wrongly,to his brother-in-law's jealousy, and refused inany way to modify his designs. A bitter quarrel


59/102

GOYA 47might have resulted, if mutual friends had notintervened to reconcile the two artists. Finally,Goya agreed to make certain concessions; thevault was entrusted to him, and he forthwithcommenced the execution of his frescoes.

The subject chosen represented The Virgin andthe Martyred Saints in their Glory. This immensework required no less than three years of the artist'stime, and he expended upon it all his scienceand all his exceptional qualities as a colourist. Itis an attractive work, cleverly composed, possess-ing a fine decorative effect, brilliant and warm,and in no way inferior to the most resplendentfrescoes of Tiepolo. Only one thing was lacking,the religious spirit, of which Goya was whollydestitute. In works of this order, dexterity isnot sufficient; the breath of the inner zeal isnecessary; cleverness, dexterity, the gift of colour,cannot make up for the absence of faith. Asoften as Goya attempted religious painting, theresult showed the same general order of deficiencies.


60/102

48 GOYAbecause he always treated his subjects solely as apainter, and not, after the manner of Raphael andCorreggio, as a devout believer.

Furthermore, the ideal was not in his line; thedominant note of his talent, before all else, wasnaturalism. Genre painter by temperament, hesought by preference for the picturesque aspectof his subjects. Owing to these conditions, hisfrescoes at Saragossa and in general all his largereligious compositions are in reality nothing elsethan vast genre paintings.

THE GLORIOUS PERIODAt the same time that he was painting his

frescoes and his scenes of popular life, Goya alsotried his skill at portraiture. In this branch of hisart his success was immediate and complete. Fromhis very first attempts he attained the highestpossible reputation. From morning till night hesaw his studio besieged by all the most distin-guished figures in the society of the Court and


61/102

PLATE VI. KING CHARLES IV AND HIS FAMILY(Museum of the Prado, Madrid)Goya was the favourite painter of the king Charles IV, who con-

ferred upon him the title of First Painter. In this fine painting,which raised the reputation of the artist to its zenith, the membersof the royal family are admirably and sincerely rendered, withouta trace of flattery. All the degeneracy of the dynasty is to beread in these countenances, in terms of convincing eloquence.


62/102


63/102


64/102


65/102

GOYA 51the city. It soon became the fashion, the rage, tohave oneself painted by Goya. They stood in lineat his door; they brought all sorts of influence tobear to obtain the favour of a sitting. All thecelebrities of the period, poets, scientists, politicalluminaries, equally with ladies of rank and reign-ing beauties, succumbed to this unheard-of vogue,which persisted, we may add, to the very end ofthe master's long career. Furthermore, his por-traits form the most extensive part of his life-work, and at the same time the part which isthe most indisputable and the most perfect.

There are nearly two hundred portraits thatare known to have been painted by Goya. Theyare not all of equal value, and in some of themwe feel a certain degree of carelessness of execu-tion, which is to be explained by the rapid work-manship demanded of him by the abundance ofhis orders. But however hasty the work may be,there are always to be found in it the essentialqualities of this artist: a surety of expression, a


66/102

52 GOYAfree yet firm outline, and an incredible under-standing of his model's personality. Goya didnot trouble himself to embellish his patrons, forhe was no flatterer; if the man or woman whoposed before him was homely, Goya's pencil woulddo nothing towards correcting the injustices ofnature. That was not his business; but he wasable, with an unsurpassed clearness of vision, tocatch upon his canvas that flashing glance, thatfugitive gleam of the inner soul which, at someprecise moment, is sure to transfigure the mostunlovely features. What distinguished him aboveall else was his originality, that purely personalstamp, thanks to which it is impossible not torecognize a Goya from the first instant. Thereis in him something that he shares in commonwith all the great portraitists, and yet he resemblesno one of them. He is Goya.

In the portraits painted in costume, now to beseen in the museum at Madrid, he somewhatapproached the manner of Velazquez; under this


67/102

GOYA 53class might be mentioned the portraits of theInfante Don Luis and his family, that of theCount of Florida-Blanca, of the Duchess of Alba,and of General Urrutia, which is a magnificentmasterpiece. All these portraits possess distinction,bold relief, and a lofty carriage which recalls the freeand noble manner of the painter of Philip IV.

At other times his brush took on a mildermanner, shading off into soft and vaporous tintsthat set us thinking of Reynolds and of Prudhon,especially in those intimate portraits into whichhe has put the greatest spontaneity. In this classbelong the admirable Young Man in Gray, thepainter's grandson this portrait is certainly oneof the most beautiful of all Goya's works andthe famous portraits of Moratin, Boyeu, JosefaBayeu, the architect Villanueva, and the twoMajas, both the nude and the clothed, which aresaid to be portraits of the Duchess of Alba, takenin the same pose but under two different aspects.We may also include among the works of his


68/102

54 GOYAsecond manner the two portraits of woman whichhang in the Louvre; The Woman with the Fan,which is reproduced in the present volume, andthe Portrait of a Young Woman, which, togetherwith the Ferdinand Guillemardet, are the onlypaintings by Goya which France's chief nationalmuseum possesses.

All these portraits are admirably conceived, ina simple, natural form, without superfluous details,and they are freely painted, in a rich and solidcolouring, and stand out from the canvas, substan-tial, harmonious, pulsing with life, against thosevaporous and imponderable backgrounds of which,since Velazquez, Goya alone has found the secret.

At this epoch Goya was not only a celebratedpainter, he was also a man of fashion, minglingwith persons of the highest rank. The InfanteDon Luis kept him throughout entire seasons at hispalace of Arenas de San Pedro, in the province ofAvila, and it was there that Goya executed anentire series of magnificent portraits and genre


69/102

GOYA 55paintings which belong to-day to the Counts ofChinchon. "Then there are the Benaventes, Dukesof Ossuna and of Candia, who for a period of morethan ten years ordered work after work from him,at one time reHgious compositions, destined for thecathedral at Valencia, such as St. Francis of Barj'abidding Farewell to his Family and St. Francis ex-horting an Impenitent Dying Man, celebrated pic-tures which have been reproduced by the engraverPeleguer, at other times portraits of the family,and lastly, a series of twenty-seven genre picturesfor their Alameda in the environs of Madrid."

Idyllic and anecdotic scenes play by far thelarger part in these compositions. There is anAl Fresco Breakfast, in the midst of a delightfullandscape, a Dance beside the Water, a Huntershowing his Family the Game that he has Killed,a Harvesting the Hay, a Resting from Labour, aGreased Pole, a Comical Accident at a Picnic, aWinter Landscape, The Seasons, Workmen con-structing a Building, Highwaymen attacking a


70/102

56 GOYAStage-coach, Gypsies playing at See-saw, Bullsin the Arroyo, and lastly some of those inexplicable"caprices," bizarre fantasies in which Goya minglessorcerers and horned demons with members of theInquisition.

Goya frequently introduced Inquisitors into hisscenes; he had felt their claws early in life andhad borne them a grudge ever since.

The most important and most celebrated canvasin this collection is The Romeria of San Isidro.This is the great festival in honour of the patronsaint of Madrid. "The whole populace has cometo make merry on the banks of the Manzanares,and the vast meadow which stretches from thehill-top where the saint's hermitage stands, downto the very water's edge, is covered by an immensethrong, motley and variegated, pressing and crowd-ing around the tents of the acrobats, the vendors'booths, the open-air kitchens, and wine-shops. Allthis picturesque world is divided into a thousandvaried groups; here a circle has been formed


71/102

GOYA 57around a man strumming on a guitar; over yondera merry set is forming; there is quarrelling, dan-cing, drinking; there are meetings and partings,and in the midst of all this swarming multitudewe watch the coming and going of pages, troopers,porters, members of the body-guard in their redcoats, amidst an indescribable pell-mell of carriageswith gaily decked steeds, and of calesinos withbodies painted in atrocious colours, which areoverturned by the restive mules as they breakaway. In the foreground, dominating the wholescene, pretty women shading themselves under pinksilk parasols, and well garbed personages groupedin easy and unaffected attitudes, form a most in-genious and charming framework for the sceneswhich are being enacted at their feet. In the back-ground of the picture, above and beyond the Man-zanares, we see the palace with its terraced gardensand the city with its towers and domes. Here areSan Francisco el Grande and the Cuesta de la Vega,and yonder is the famous Barrio de Lavapies."


72/102

58 GOYATreated in a warm and luminous scale of colour,

lustrous with subtle and vivid tones, this spar-kling page remains unsurpassed, because of theinfinite care which Goya expended in order togive variety and an astonishing degree of precisionto even the minutest of its multifold details.

The pictures of country life, such as the AlFresco Breakfast, The See-saw, The Dance, ThePicnic, show us Goya under still another aspect.The first time that one sees these pictures in theAlameda one would say that they were the productof the brush of some one of the French paintersof the eighteenth century; one is tempted toattribute them to Watteau or Fragonard; and itis true that Goya chose, like them, to reproducethe fashions and frivolities of his time; but evenwhile he imitated the vanities and affectations ofthese masters, he remained nevertheless a Spaniard,and his types and his costumes are represented withthe most scrupulous truth.


73/102

PLATE VII. LA TIRANA(Museum of the Prado, Madrid)La Tirana was a famous actress in Madrid during the reign of

Charles IV. Goya painted her at the time when he was in the fullheight of his renown, and celebrities of every kind at the capitalquarrelled with one another for the privilege of being painted by him.


74/102


75/102


76/102


77/102

GOYA 6iOn the 25th of April, 1789, a few months after

Charles IV. ascended the throne, a royal order raisedGoya to the dignity of Pintor da Camara, whichcorresponded to Peintre Ordinaire du Roi, a titleformerly bestowed upon French artists. This dis-tinction gave him, as in the case of Gentlemenof the Bed-chamber, free entry to the palace.Under the new king the Court had taken on anew aspect. During the reign of the devoutCharles III. it was constrained to all the outwardshow of austere piety which recalled the moroseyears under the monarchs of the House of Austria.Under the new king everything was changed,laughter was revived, festivals recommenced, andwith them, intrigues of gallantry and licentious-ness. Scandals multiplied, and the example camefrom high up; Queen Maria-Luisa herself set thepace for a society that had been parched withthirst for pleasure, and she flaunted before thewhole nation her absolute contempt of decencyand her unbridled appetite for dissipation. The


78/102

62 GOYAepoch of the high favour of the Prince de la Paixbegan. Goya, whose marriage had but poorlyreformed him, welcomed this change of regimewith enthusiasm. He was already something morethan celebrated in Madrid because of his prowesswith the fair sex, famous for his duels, an adeptat all the nicer usages through his constant associ-ation with the upper circles; consequently he felthimself fully at ease in this atmosphere of shame-lessness and incontinence. He had some famousintrigues and illustrious liaisons, which he did noteven take the trouble to conceal. Possessed of acaustic and subtle wit, and untroubled by scruples,he was much sought after for the brilliance andthe daring of his conversation. Those who didnot like him learned to fear him. Before long hehad scored an even bigger success as a man thanas an artist. Through contact with men of rank,he had acquired not only assurance but a certainair of haughtiness verging upon insolence. Beingdrawn into the circles of the Duchess of Alba and


79/102

GOYA 63Duchess of Ossuna, who at that time, like rivalqueens, were disputing the sceptre of fashion andpleasure, he witnessed and shared in many a boudoirintrigue, taking sides in these women's quarrels,at one time supporting the one side, then againgoing over to the other, and at last coming outopenly in favour of the Duchess of Alba, who atthat time was waging a silent warfare with Maria-Luisa. Having become the cavaliere servente ofthe Duchess, he no longer contented himself withplotting intrigues or launching epigrams; but hetranslated his opinions into the form of satiriccaricatures, in which he mercilessly ridiculed theadversaries of his fair lady. The arrows that helaunched flew so high that the outraged queenexiled the Duchess from her court and gave thePintor da Camara a leave of absence. Goya andthe Duchess set forth side by side on the road toAndalusia, sharing the period of their disfavour ona distant estate belonging to the Duchess of Alba.

This exile, however, was of short duration and


80/102

64 GOYAonly served to increase the artist's reputation forgallantry. The king, who loved him in spite ofhis follies, recalled him and entrusted him withthe frescoes for the chapel of San Antonio de laFlorida. The task was a considerable one; itincluded the painting of a vast cupola and severalsmaller vaults, tympanums, and arches. Behold thenour libertine philosopher transformed once moreinto a religious painter. Within three months hehad completed the entire scheme of the decoration.The subject chosen was as follows: Si. Anthonyof Padua resuscitating a Dead Man in Order toMake him Reveal the Name of his Murderer.Goya placed his saint upon an eminence, fromwhich he calls upon the dead man to come forth;the latter has already arisen from his tomb, hasjoined his hands, and is about to speak. On theright and left the compact throng press forward,anxious to see the miracle accomplished. Allaround the cupola the artist has pictured a sortof gallery on which the spectators lean, and among


81/102

GOYA 65them we see a child with its legs dangling in space.This composition is remarkable in its sense ofmovement and varied interest. But what dis-tinguishes it especially from other works of itstype is that Goya, through an obstinate adherenceto realism which cannot fail to cause some littlesurprise, thought that he was bound to adopt forall the personages in his picture both the costumesand the types of his own time. "His women aretrue manolas, draping themselves in their mantil-las, and his men are men of the people, arrierosproudly wrapped in their mantles of motley colour.In the corbels of the arches Goya painted cheru-bim, haloes, and angels, and he endowed thesecelestial beings with feminine charms and carnalgraces that were far too reminiscent of the seduc-tions of the earth. It is related that Goya usedthe ladies of the Court as models for these femi-nine countenances, and that on the day when thefrescoes were unveiled, Charles IV. expressed hisdispleasure to the artist in unmeasured terms."


82/102

66 GOYAFrom 1796 to 1797 Goya published that curious

series of compositions done in etching and inwater-colour which he entitled Caprices. Andthey were quite Hterally caprices through theirinfinite diversity of subject and the oftentimesextravagant fantasy of their execution. Scenes oflocal manners ironically interpreted, mocking allu-sions to popular superstitions, trenchant criticismsof public men and political institutions, attacks ofunheard-of violence upon the established religionand its dogmas, pitiless satires upon the Inquisi-tion and more especially upon the monastic orders,and finally prophetic dreams and visions of thefuture make up the contents of this singularlycomplex work which concealed a most audaciousmotive underneath its apparent fantasy. And allthis treated with a sparkling brilliance, a dia-bolical cleverness that is carried sometimes to thepoint of brutality, with a realism that often causesa sort of revulsion. As to the execution, it is re-markable: the lines are clear-cut and vigorous, the


83/102

GOYA 67design is solid, almost schematic in places for thepurpose of enhancing the energy; with incom-parable art, Goya makes use of contrasts for thepurpose of obtaining astonishing relief, perfectmodelling, and effects of light that produce theillusion of painting. In these compositions he showsthe variety and flexibility of his talent, whichundertook with equal felicity the most widelydiverse branches of his art.

In Spain these Caprices enjoyed a very con-siderable success, but they caused considerablediscomfort to their author. At one time theirpublication was suspended. The Inquisition, whichhad been especially maltreated in these designs,became once more threatening, and showed an im-placable ardour in its quest for vengeance. Neverthe-less, it failed of its purpose, thanks to the kind officesof the Prince de la Paix, who was himself hostile tothe monks and took Goya under his protection.In accordance with his advice, Goya offered hisCaprices to the king, Charles IV., who, acting in


84/102

68 GOYAaccord with his minister, accepted them for his col-lection of copper-plates. Having thus found shelterbehind the august presence, Goya became invulner-able; and the Inquisition had to let its prey escape.

On the 31st of October, 1799, Goya becameFirst Painter to the king. He was at that timefifty-three years of age. Neither years nor in-dulgences had undermined his robust organism ordiminished his talent. On the contrary, it was atthis epoch that his manner underwent a transfor-mation which bears witness once again to theresources and the vitality of this exceptional nature.A study of the works of Rembrandt had awakened inhim a violent passion for the effects of light and ofchiaroscuro, and from this time forward we find himpractising this difficult art and manifesting in it aremarkable mastery and originality. In this styleof painting, which was new to him, he achievedmasterpieces from the first attempt, such for in-stance as the Betrayal by Judas, in the cathedralat Toledo, which might have been signed by Cor-


85/102

PLATE VIII.JOSEFA BAYEU(Museum of the Prado, Madrid)Josefa Bayeu was the sister of the painter Francisco Bayeu, like

Goya, a native of Aragon, and his intimate friend. It was in thehome of his comrade that Goya fell in love with Josefa and marriedher. He had one son, Xavier Goya. This portrait is consideredas one of the best executed by the artist.


86/102


87/102


88/102


89/102

GOYA 71reggio or Rembrandt. The patch of light, whichthrows into strong reUef the suffering face of Christand the hideous countenance of Judas, is distrib-uted in a masterly fashion and in no wise detractsfrom the luminous transparency of the shadows.

In this work, as in all others by this artist, boththe personal and the national note are found tobe strongly imprinted; all the participants in thisscene are authentic Spaniards, whose classic typesmay still be recognized to-day in every city through-out the peninsula.

Mention also should be made, among the worksin which Goya ventured upon chiaroscuro, of thecelebrated picture in the Escuelas Pias in Madrid,representing The Communion of St. Joseph Cala-sanz, and of the spacious and original canvases withwhich he decorated the walls of his own home.

We now arrive at that turbulent period, extendingfrom 1800 to 1814, which marked an era of nationalcalamities for Spain. The facts are familiar: asa result of court intrigues, the luckless and unhappy


90/102

72 GOYACharles IV. found himself in 1808 forced to abdicatein favour of his son; then came the invasion ofSpain by the imperial armies, the odious treacheryof Bayonne which made Ferdinand II. a prisonerand a dethroned king, while Napoleon, following hismad dream of universal conquest, placed his ownbrother, Joseph, on the throne of Charies V.; andfinally there came the awakening of invaded Spainand its splendid national defence, resulting in theexpulsion of the enemy and the fall of the Empire.

All these years of struggle and patriotic frenzyGoya passed in his quinta, where he had shut him-self up in complete isolation, taking no part inthe events which were shaking Spain to its foun-dations. This attitude of his gave rise to a greatamount of comment. In the eyes of many, Goyawas an afrancesado, a partisan of the Frenchinvasion; but there seem to be no grounds thatwould justify anyone in offering him such aninsult. It may be that, pledged as he was toideas of justice and liberty, he was not displeased to


91/102

GOYA 73see the downfall of a corrupt regime, under whichSpain had been slowly dying. But that he hadlooked on light-heartedly at the misfortunes of hisnative land, and that he had not suffered to thevery depths of his Spanish soul, would indicate adepravity which no one has a right to impute to him.

And if proof of this were needed, we couldfind it in his masterly series of The Misfortunesof War, eloquent and melancholy commentariesupon that troubled period, giving a gruesomepanorama of military executions, conflagrations,pillage, and famine; in a word, the habitual andtragic accompaniment of a foreign invasion. Couldan artist who was indifferent have expressed him-self in such pathetic accents? Could a renegadehave been stirred to such a point by all thesehorrors? Furthermore, Goya made no overturesto the invaders. While other Spaniards, willinglyor unwillingly, figured at the court of Murat andof Joseph, Goya remained in close retirement inhis own house, notwithstanding his natural fond-


92/102

74 GOYAness for adventures and festivities. "But aboveand beyond his incontestable patriotism, a moregenerous sentiment, loftier and more profoundly-humane, emanates from these sinister pages. WhatGoya hated beyond all else was war: it spellediniquity, despotism, and above all, tyranny. Noth-ing more eloquent than this avenging protest hasever been formulated against the spirit of conquestand the barbarous struggle of nation againstnation." In about the year 1814, upon the returnof Ferdinand II., Goya added to his Misfor-tunes of War seventeen new plates, the strangestand most daring of them all. This is the lastand most strenuous battle that he ever waged onbehalf of all he loved against all that he hated.What phials of wrath he poured out against in-trigue, conservatism, and falsehood, which stifleliberty and repress human thought! What out-bursts against the rogues who strive desperatelyto destroy liberty and justice! Here is a picturein which hypocrisy has conquered and has con-


93/102

GOYA 75fiscated liberty: Contra el Bien General! Furtheron is another, in which truth is in its death agony:Murio la Verdad! But she will rise again: SiResusitard! for it is impossible that she shoulddisappear forever. Lastly, as a conclusion to thiswork, Goya prophesied in an eloquent page thereturn of a glorious era which should inauguratethe reign of liberty, love, happiness, and peace.And it bore this legend: This is the Truth!

But the reign of Ferdinand VII. did not fulfilthe generous hopes of the great artist. With thisking, the worst days of absolute monarchy wererevived in Spain; the triumphant reaction mani-fested itself by persecutions, cruelties, and tyranniesof the most odious kind. Whoever was even sus-pected of liberalism was marked for exile or forprison. More than anyone else, Goya's personalprominence exposed him to the attacks of thereactionists, but his very fame protected him.Ferdinand VII., when he received him one day,informed the aged artist that he "deserved exile,


94/102

76 GOYAand more than exile; he deserved death!" but heconsented to forget the past and he reappointedthe artist to the office of First Painter. It wouldseem as though such protection should havesufficed to protect Goya from the machinationsand hostilities of his adversaries. But it didnothing of the sort. The reactionary partywould not consent that a liberal should escapeits vengeance, even though protected by royalimmunity; so it continued to hound him bymeans of secret intrigues and calumnies.

Goya, impatient and irascible by nature, couldill bear the malevolent insinuations, allusions, 'andcontemptuous term.s; he found himself stifling insuch a poisoned atmosphere. Residence in Madridhad become impossible for him; the greater num-ber of his friends, less fortunate than he, hadalready been forced into exile; and since thepersecution showed no signs of abating, he sawhis circle of friends dwindling day by day. Atlast he made up his mind to leave a native land


95/102

GOYA 77that had grown so inhospitable and hostile. Heasked the king for a leave of absence, and uponobtaining it crossed over into France.

THE CLOSING YEARSGoya went first of all to Paris, but he made a

stay there of short duration. Almost all his friendsfrom Madrid, whom Ferdinand VII. had drivenfrom Spain, had taken refuge in Bordeaux, wherethey formed a veritable colony. He proceeded tojoin it and decided to settle down among them.

He did not, however, remain inactive. Thisprodigious worker, who was now nearly eightyyears old, could not resign himself to rest; heonce again took up his brush with a hand whichhis great age could not yet cause to tremble.Besides, he was not well off, possessing scarcelyanything besides his house in Spain and hispension as First Painter.

Accordingly, he continued to paint genre pic-tures and numerous portraits. Those of Don Juan


96/102

78 GOYAMaguire, M. Pio de Molina, and M. J. Galos datefrom this epoch. He also painted another of hisfriends, also exiled, whom he met again at Bor-deaux Moratin, the celebrated Spanish poet, who,carried away by his passion for democracy, hadsung the French invasion in eloquent stanzas andnow expiated his error in exile.

Besides the portraits, Goya painted some verybeautiful miniatures on ivory, and he renewedhis experiments in lithography, which he hadalready undertaken in Madrid some years previous.His four large examples representing Bull Fightsare masterpieces of colour and of movement.

In 1827 Goya had to journey back to Madrid,in order to make a personal appeal to the kingfor an extension of his leave of absence. Sincehe could not persuade Goya to remain, the kingfreely granted the favour requested; but he imposedone condition, and a very flattering one to theartist: namely, that he would first allow his por-trait to be painted by Don Vicente Lopez, at that


97/102

GOYA 79time Pintor da Camara. This portrait is now tobe seen at the museum in Madrid.

That same year he returned to Bordeaux andonce more resumed his cherished habits and hisbrush and palette. Many of the works of thislater period remained in France, and the museumat Bordeaux possesses a considerable number ofthem.

Goya still continued to work, but his handshad begun to tremble and he could no longersee without the aid of a lens. His strength wasfailing and he felt that the end was drawingnear. He sent for his son, Xavier, who had con-tinued to reside at Madrid; and a few days later,on the 15th of April, 1828, he passed away inthe arms of his friends, at the age of eighty-twoyears and fifteen days.

Goya was truly a great artist in the noblestsense of the term. He possessed qualities whichwere at one and the same time substantial andbrilliant; he was versatile and original, a spirited


98/102


99/102


100/102

J)ATI^ VUP.

HAY 6


101/102HiJ a S ticM'i iti


102/102

goya - masterpieces in colour

Documents