Francisco Goya Paintings

About Francisco Goya

Francisco de Goya y Lucientes, full name Francisco José de Goya y Lucientes, was a Spanish romantic painter and printmaker, and he is considered the most important Spanish artist of the late 18th and the early 19th centuries. His paintings, drawings and engravings reflected the historical upheavals of his own time, the social ones as well as the political, and they influenced important painters of the 19th and the 20th centuries. He is often called the last of the Old Masters and the first of the moderns, and he is widely regarded as one of the most influential figures in the history of Western art.

Francisco de Goya lived from 1746 to 1828. He was first painter to the Spanish court and, later, its sharpest critic, and the court portraits and the tapestry cartoons fill the years between those two jobs. Near the end of his life the Black Paintings went straight onto the walls of his own house. The two canvases of May 1808 sit in the middle of that arc: the provisional government of Spain commissioned them from him, at his own suggestion, to commemorate Spanish resistance to Napoleon's armies during the occupation of Madrid in 1808, at the start of the Peninsular War.

Series and periods

The work of a court painter who turned into a critic falls into distinct blocks, so this collection reads best by period and by commission.

• The two canvases of May 1808: The Third of May 1808, completed in 1814, is also called in Spanish El tres de mayo de 1808 en Madrid, Los fusilamientos de la montaña del Príncipe Pío and Los fusilamientos del tres de mayo. Its companion piece is the same size, and both were commissioned by the provisional government of Spain at Goya's own suggestion, shortly after the ousting of the French occupation and the restoration of King Ferdinand VII. Titles here: The Third of May 1808, The Second of May 1808, Ferdinand VII.
• Court portraits: the work of the court painter, the aristocracy and the ministers of Madrid sitting for him one after another, as well as the writers and actors he painted off duty. Titles here: Duchess of Alba, The White Duchess, The Duchess of Alba, Manuel Godoy, Duke of Alcudia, Countess of Chinchón, Antonia Zárate, Don Ramón Satué, Leandro Fernández de Moratín.
• Tapestry cartoons and everyday scenes: the designs and the genre pictures that fill the years between the court and the criticism, games in the open air and work at a forge. Titles here: Blind Man's Buff, The Forge, The Milkmaid of Bordeaux.
• Witches and superstition: the 1798 picture in Madrid and the later goat, two different pictures that share one title in English. Titles here: Witches' Sabbath, The Great He-Goat, Two Old Ones Eating Soup.
• The dark work of the final years: the Black Paintings went straight onto the walls of his own house near the end, a series made for himself rather than for a patron, and these are the titles in that vein. Titles here: Saturn Devouring One of His Sons, Atropos (The Fates), Two Old Men, Leocadia.

Most famous works

These are the Goya titles people open most in this collection, ordered by the traffic each one draws and by what actually sells. Each one opens its own page, where you choose the size and decide on a frame, and each is painted new for the order.

• The Third of May 1808: completed in 1814 and also known as El tres de mayo de 1808 en Madrid. Goya sought to commemorate Spanish resistance to Napoleon's armies during the occupation of Madrid in 1808, at the start of the Peninsular War, and the provisional government of Spain commissioned it at his own suggestion after the French were ousted
• The Second of May 1808: The Charge of the Mamelukes: the companion piece of the same size, the street fighting of the day before the executions
• Saturn Devouring One of His Sons: the god eating his child, the most recognisable of the dark pictures of the final years
• Witches' Sabbath: a 1798 oil painting on canvas, held today in the Museo Lázaro Galdiano in Madrid, and a scene of a witches' sabbath
• Witches' Sabbath, The Great He-Goat: a different and later picture with the same English title, the goat before a crowd on a hillside
• The Colossus: a giant figure above a plain while a column of people scatters below
• Atropos (The Fates): the three fates in the air with the thread and the shears, one of the dark subjects
• Duchess of Alba, The White Duchess: the full length portrait in white, one of two pictures of the duchess here
• The Duchess of Alba: the second portrait of the same sitter, standing in black on open ground
• Manuel Godoy, Duke of Alcudia, Prince of Peace: the minister seated in the field with dispatches at his feet, a court commission
• Ferdinand VII: the king whose restoration followed the ousting of the French occupation, painted in state dress
• Portrait of the Countess of Chinchón: the countess seated, her hands in her lap and the light held to her face
• Antonia Zárate: the actress seated in black with a gauze wrap, a late portrait
• Don Ramón Satué: a man in shirtsleeves with his hands in his pockets, painted without any court apparatus
• Portrait of Leandro Fernández de Moratín: the writer seen close up against a plain ground
• Leocadia: a figure in black leaning on a mound, from the dark pictures of the house
• The Milkmaid of Bordeaux: a young woman with her pitcher, the paint laid on in loose blue and rose
• Blind Man's Buff: the game played in a ring in the open air, a design of the kind used for tapestry cartoons
• The Forge: three men working iron at an anvil, seen close and from below
• Two Old Ones Eating Soup: two heads over a bowl, one of the darkest of the small pictures
• Two Old Men: a man leaning on a stick with a second figure at his ear
• Plague Hospital: bodies laid out in a vaulted room in low light
• Still Life of Sheep's Ribs and Head: the butcher's counter painted straight, the ribs and the head laid on a board
• Truth Rescued by Time, Witnessed by History: an allegory of truth, time and history, the figures lifted against the light

Browse by subject

Goya's subjects run through other collections of ours, and each one is a different door into the same painter.

• Romanticism: 5,217 works, the artistic and intellectual movement that began in Europe at the end of the 18th century to argue for subjectivity, imagination and the appreciation of nature, against the Age of Enlightenment and the Industrial Revolution. Goya was a Spanish romantic painter, and our own collection listing sends readers here.
• Portrait paintings: 8,463 canvases, the genre whose intent is to represent a specific human subject, worked on commission for public and private persons or out of admiration for the sitter, and long kept as a state and family record. The court portraits and the later heads sit with the rest of the genre, Spanish and otherwise.
• Paintings of women: 9,375 titles, The duchess, the countess, Antonia Zárate, Leocadia and the milkmaid.
• Mythology paintings: 3,360 pieces, Saturn and the fates, the stories he took for the darkest pictures.
• Still life paintings: 2,329 paintings, the picture of mostly inanimate subject matter, the commonplace objects of a table or a studio, either natural or human-made. The sheep's ribs and head, painted with the same directness as the court heads.
• The 100 most famous paintings of all time: 2 canvases by Goya sit on this list, our reading of the best known paintings in art history, the 1814 execution picture and the 1798 witches.

The full list of painters we reproduce in oil is on the artist index.

How each reproduction is painted

Nothing here is stock. When you order, an artist paints that title in oil on canvas in the size you picked, layer by layer, and you see a photograph of the finished painting and approve it before it leaves the studio. The dark pictures use thin darks built up in layers, and that fine detail takes longer than an open ground, so we make each one to order rather than in advance. Seven sizes are available and the frame is optional, so the same picture can be a small study by a desk or the one thing on a wall. Shipping is free worldwide and returns stay open for 90 days.

Frequently asked questions

What is The Third of May 1808?

A painting completed in 1814, also known as El tres de mayo de 1808 en Madrid, as Los fusilamientos de la montaña del Príncipe Pío and as Los fusilamientos del tres de mayo. Goya sought to commemorate Spanish resistance to Napoleon's armies during the occupation of Madrid in 1808, at the start of the Peninsular War.

Who commissioned the two May pictures?

The provisional government of Spain, at Goya's own suggestion, shortly after the ousting of the French occupation and the restoration of King Ferdinand VII. The Second of May 1808 is a companion piece of the same size.

What are the Black Paintings?

A series of dark works from his later period. They went straight onto the walls of his own house near the end of his life, which is why they are grouped apart from the court work and the tapestry cartoons.

Where is the Witches' Sabbath?

The 1798 oil painting on canvas is held today in the Museo Lázaro Galdiano in Madrid. Note that two pictures by Goya carry that name in English, and the later one, The Great He-Goat, has its own page here.

Why is Goya called the first of the moderns?

Because his paintings, drawings and engravings reflected the historical upheavals of his own time and influenced important painters of the 19th and the 20th centuries. He is often described as the last of the Old Masters and the first of the modern painters, and as one of the most influential figures in the history of Western art.

Do you sell Goya prints?

No. He worked as a printmaker as well as a painter, but we sell no prints and no engravings: each item here is a new painting in oil, made by hand for your order.

Are these original Francisco Goya paintings?

No. Each one is a new painting, made by hand in oil on canvas after Goya's composition. It is a reproduction, not a print, and not the original canvas.

What sizes and frames can I order?

Every Goya reproduction here comes in seven sizes, with an optional frame. You see a photo of the finished oil painting and approve it before it ships, worldwide shipping is free, and returns stay open for 90 days.