Francisco Goya

Francisco Goya was a Spanish painter often seen as the last of the old masters and the first of the moderns. Born in 1746, he rose to become the leading painter to the Spanish royal court, producing sharp, honest portraits of the king and nobility. Yet a serious illness left him deaf, and his work grew darker and more haunted over time.

He created powerful prints and paintings exposing the horrors of war and the cruelty and folly of society, unflinching in their honesty. Late in life he covered the walls of his own house with the nightmarish images now called the Black Paintings. Goya's bold, disturbing vision broke sharply with tradition and influenced countless artists who came after, making him one of the great figures in European art.