Goya was born in a very poor village called Fuendetodos, near Saragossa, in Aragon, on 30 March 1746. Goya’s father was a gilder in Saragossa and it was there that Goya spent his childhood and adolescence. He began his artistic studies at the age of 13 with a local artist, José Lusán, who had trained in Naples and who taught Goya to draw, to copy engravings and to paint in oils. In 1763 and 1766, he competed unsuccessfully for a scholarship of the Royal Academy of San Fernando in Madrid, probably working in the studio of the Court Painter Francisco Bayeu, who was also from Saragossa. To continue his studies he went to Rome at his own expense. In April of 1771 he participated in a competition held by the Academy of Parma introducing himself as a pupil of Francisco Bayeu. By the end of 1771, Goya was back in Saragossa, where he received his first official commission, the frescoes in the Cathedral of El Pilar.
c.1766-1767. Oil on canvas, 46 x 60 cm. Private collection. Read Note.
1771. Oil on canvas, 32 x 24 cm. Private collection. Read Note.
c.1773. Oil on canvas, 58 x 44 cm. Private collection.
1774. Oil on plastering. Hermitage Aula Dei, near Saragossa, Spain.
c.1775-1780. Oil on canvas, 200 x 148 cm. Museo del Prado, Madrid, Spain.
1777. Oil on canvas, 41.9 x 67.3 cm. Private collection.
1777. Oil on canvas, 104 x 152 cm. Museo del Prado, Madrid, Spain.
1778. Tapestry cartoon. 269 x 285 cm. Museo del Prado, Madrid, Spain.
1783. Oil on canvas, 262 x 166 cm. Banco Urquijo, Madrid, Spain. Read Note.
1783. Oil on canvas. 80 x 60 cm. Galleria degli Uffizi, Florence, Italy. Read Note.
1783. Oil on canvas, 132.3 x 116.7 cm. The National Gallery of Art, Washington, DC, USA. Read Note.
1783. Oil on canvas. Private collection. Read Note.
1786-87. Oil on canvas, 138.5 x 104 cm. Private collection.
1786. Oil on canvas, 34 x 76 cm. Fundación Lazaro Galdiano, Madrid, Spain.
c.1786. Oil on canvas, 211 x 126 cm. The National Gallery of Art, Washington, DC, USA. Read Note.
1786-87. Oil on canvas. Museo del Prado, Madrid, Spain.
1786-87. Oil on canvas. Museo del Prado, Madrid, Spain.
1786-87. Oil on canvas. Duke of Montellano, Madrid, Spain.
1786-87. Oil on canvas. Duke of Montellano, Madrid, Spain.
c.1786-88. Oil on canvas, 206 x 130 cm. Duchess of Arco, Madrid, Spain. Read Note.
Goya by I. Levina. Moscow-Leningrad. 1958.
Goya. by T. Sedova. Moscow. 1973.
Goya and Romanticism. by V. Prokofyev. Moscow. 1986.
Painting of Europe. XIII-XX centuries. Encyclopedic Dictionary. Moscow. Iskusstvo. 1999.
Francisco Goya y Lucientes: 1746-1828 by Janis Tomlinson. Phaidon Press Inc., 1999.
Goya: Man Among Kings by Anthony H. Hull. Madison Books, 1993.
Goya by ROBERT HUGHES. Knopf, 2003.
The Black Paintings of Goya by Juan Jose Junquera. Scala Publishers, 2003.
I, Goya by Dagmar Feghelm, Goya, Ishbel Flett, Christopher Wynne. Prestel Publishing, 2004.
Goya by Fred Licht. Abbeville Press, 2001.
Goya by Werner Hofmann, Francisco Goya. Thames & Hudson, 2003.
Goya: Drawings from His Private Albums by Juliet Wilson Bareau, Juliet Wilson-Bareau, Francisco Goya. Lund Humphries Publishers, 2001.
Goya: The Complete Etchings and Lithographs by Alfonso E. Perez Sanchez, Julian Gallego, Jenifer Wakelyn. Prestel, 1995.
Goya's Caprichos: Aesthetics, Perception, and the Body by Andrew Schulz. Cambridge University Press, 2005.