Francisco Goya

Introduction & Top Questions
Early training and career
Period under Charles IV
The Napoleonic invasion and period after the restoration
Last years
Legacy

References & Edit History Quick Facts & Related Topics

Images & Videos

Francisco Goya's Saturn Devouring His Son, explained

Francisco Goya: The Painter Francisco Bayeu

Painting by Francisco Jose de Goya y Lucientes showing Charles IV of Bourbon in a red, ornate suit with blue sash, standing against a dark green draped background.

Francisco Goya: Manuel Osorio Manrique de Zuñiga (1784–92)

Francisco Goya: De que mal morira? (Of What Ill Will He Die?)

Painting by Francisco de Goya of Senora Sabasa Garcia, showing a woman with curled brown hair, a sheer veil, and a gold shawl, posed against a dark background.

Oil painting The Witches' Sabbath by Francisco de Goya shows a group of figures in dark robes gathered around a crouching person, with eerie creatures flying in a moonlit sky.

At a Glance

Francisco de Goya summary

Quizzes

Color pastels, colored chalk, colorful chalk. Hompepage blog 2009, arts and entertainment, history and society

Ultimate Art Quiz

Close-up of a palette held by a man. Mixing paint, painting, color mixing.

Artists, Painters, & Architects

63 Questions from Britannica’s Most Popular Visual Arts Quizzes

"The Family of Carlos IV" oil on canvas by Francisco Goya, 1800; in the collection of the Prado, Madrid, Spain.

Can You Name These Goya Paintings From Only A Description? Quiz

Tate Modern extension Switch House, London, England. (Tavatnik, museums). Photo dated 2017.

Can You Match These Lesser-Known Paintings to Their Artists?

Related Questions

How did Anton Raphael Mengs influence Francisco Goya’s style?
How did Francisco Goya become First Court Painter to Charles IV?
How did Francisco Goya continue making art during his exile in Bordeaux?
How did Francisco Goya influence Romanticism, Realism, Impressionism, Expressionism, and Surrealism?
How did Francisco Goya pay tribute to Diego Velázquez in The Family of Charles IV?
How did Francisco Goya train as an artist in Zaragoza and Madrid?
How did Francisco Goya use aquatint in his print series?
How did Francisco Goya’s later tapestry cartoons differ from his earlier ones?
How did Napoleon’s brother Joseph Bonaparte become king of Spain?
How does Francisco Goya depict the French soldiers in The Third of May 1808?
How many Black Paintings did Francisco Goya create at the Quinta del Sordo?
How many prints are in Francisco Goya’s Los caprichos series?
How were Francisco Goya’s Black Paintings moved from the walls to the Prado Museum?
What ideas have been suggested as meanings of Francisco Goya’s Saturn?
What social and political problems did Francisco Goya criticize in Los caprichos?
When and where was Francisco Goya born?
When did Francisco Goya become a member of the Royal Academy of San Fernando?
When did Francisco Goya become painter to King Charles III?
Where did Francisco Goya die?
Where did the execution shown in The Third of May 1808 take place?
Which Roman myth inspired Francisco Goya’s Saturn?
Which artists influenced Francisco Goya’s early work?
Which painting did Francisco Goya submit for admission to the Royal Academy of San Fernando?
Which three masters did Francisco Goya say had shaped his art?
Who appears in Francisco Goya’s The Family of Charles IV?
Who might have modeled for Francisco Goya’s Naked Maja and Clothed Maja?
Who was the likely patron of Francisco Goya’s The Naked Maja?
Why did Francisco Goya admire Diego Velázquez and Rembrandt?
Why did Francisco Goya begin making more drawings and engravings after 1792?
Why did Francisco Goya paint the Black Paintings on the walls of the Quinta del Sordo?
Why did some critics interpret The Family of Charles IV as a satire?
Why does the central figure in The Third of May 1808 resemble Christ?
Why is The Third of May 1808 considered a powerful antiwar painting?
Why might Francisco Goya have been concerned with mortality when he painted Saturn?
Why is Francisco Goya famous?
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Where did Salvador Dalí get his education?
What is Salvador Dalí best known for?
What is Diego Velázquez famous for?
How was Diego Velázquez educated?
How did Diego Velázquez die?
Where was Titian born?
Why is Edvard Munch so famous?
What was the tragedy of Edvard Munch?

Visual Arts Painting Painters

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External Websites

Artnet - Biography of Francisco Goya
Benton Museum of Art Pomona College - Biography of Francisco Goya
Art UK - Biography of Francisco de Goya
BBC - The Forum - Goya: Seeking truth through art
Art in Context - Francisco de Goya Â– Father of Unflinching Spanish Realism
National Center for Biotechnology Information - PubMed Central - Francisco Goya and his illness
The Art Story - Biography of Francisco Goya
The Met - Francisco de Goya (1746Â–1828) and the Spanish Enlightenment
Web Gallery of Art - Biography of Francisco de Goya y Lucientes
ABC listen - Late Night Live - Goya's double life: respectable painter and satirical cartoonist

Britannica Websites

Articles from Britannica Encyclopedias for elementary and high school students.

Francisco Goya - Student Encyclopedia (Ages 11 and up)

Francisco Goya

Spanish artist

Also known as: Francisco José de Goya y Lucientes

Written by

Enriqueta Harris-Frankfort

Honorary Fellow of the Warburg Institute, University of London. Author of Goya; Velázquez; and others.

Enriqueta Harris-Frankfort

Fact-checked by

Britannica Editors

Encyclopaedia Britannica's editors oversee subject areas in which they have extensive knowledge, whether from years of experience gained by working on that content or via study for an advanced degree....

Britannica Editors

Last updated

Oct. 29, 2026 •History

Francisco Goya (born March 30, 1746, Fuendetodos, Spain—died April 16, 1828, Bordeaux, France) was a Spanish artist whose paintings, drawings, and engravings reflected contemporary historical upheavals and influenced important 19th- and 20th-century painters. The series of etchings The Disasters of War (1810–14) records the horrors of the Napoleonic invasion. His masterpieces in painting include The Naked Maja, The Clothed Maja (c. 1800–05), and The Third of May 1808 (1814). Goya began his studies in Zaragoza...

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