Francisco Goya

Francisco de Goya’s expressive, tempestuous paintings are iconic works of late 18th- and early 19th-century art. With his thick brushstrokes, high-contrast color palettes, and dark, psychological themes, Goya created a crucial bridge between the Old Masters’ style and subject matter and the modernists’ interests in politics and the surreal; Pablo Picasso and Salvador Dalí named Goya an important forebear to their own practices. Goya was equally famed for his etchings and drawings, which feature both monstrous subject matter and more lighthearted, satirical fare. His most famous works include The Third of May 1808 (1814) and Saturn Devouring One of His Sons (1820–23)—violence, whether authoritarian or mythological, is prevalent throughout his oeuvre. Goya’s paintings have sold for millions on the secondary market and belong in the collections of countless institutions, including the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the British Museum, the Museo del Prado, the Frick Collection, and the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C.