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Why did Francisco Goya paint the Black Paintings on the walls of the Quinta del Sordo?
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Francisco Goya
Detail of Self-portrait, etching by Francisco Goya from the series Los caprichos, 1799.
Francisco Goya painted the "Black Paintings" directly onto the plaster walls of his country house, the Quinta del Sordo ("Villa of the deaf man"), between 1819 and 1823.123
These 14 psychologically brooding images were not intended for public display. Their creation is often attributed to the following factors:23
- Personal Reflection and Mortality: By this time, Goya was in his 70s and had survived two life-threatening illnesses. Having lost his hearing in his mid-40s, he likely experienced significant anxiety regarding his own mortality and aging.23
- Psychological State: The works are described as "nightmare visions" in an expressionist language that appears to reflect the artist's cynicism, pessimism, and despair.1
- Thematic Continuity: The paintings are consistent with Goya's broader body of work, which frequently explored human brutality, the horrors of war, and the darker aspects of the human condition.3
The images, including the haunting Saturn, were only later removed from the walls, transferred to canvas, and deposited in the Prado Museum.23