1746 -1828 · Court of Spain, critique of the Enlightenment and birth of modernity

Popular festivals, sovereign portraits, visions of war, satire and black paintings make Francisco de Goya the deepest and most modern witness of his time.

Francisco José de Goya y Lucientes was born in 1746 in Fuendetodos, near Zaragoza. He trained with José Luzân, traveled to Italy and returned to Aragon for his first religious commissions. His marriage to Josefa Bayeu introduced him to a well-established family of painters. In Madrid, under the supervision of Francisco Bayeu, from 1775 he designed boxes for royal tapestries. The Parasol and The Harvest celebrated leisure, costumes and popular lighting in an ideal Spain. Goya became painter to the king in 1786 and then first painter to the Chamber in 1799. He represented aristocrats, intellectuals, actors, children and sovereigns with increasing freedom. The Family of Charles IV combines the brilliance of fabrics, dynastic staging and merciless observation of people. A serious illness in 1792 left him deaf and intensified his inner gaze. In Les Caprices, published in 1799, he denounces superstition, ignorance, hypocrisy and violence by mixing etching and aquatint. The Napoleonic invasion of 1808 and the War of Independence destroyed the optimism of the Enlightenment. The Napoleonic invasion of 1808 and the War of Independence destroyed the optimism of the Enlightenment. The Disasters of War of 1808 refused any heroization, while May 3, 1808 gave the anonymous victims monumental dignity. The Disasters of War refused any heroization, while May 3, 1808 gave the anonymous victims monumental dignity. The Disasters of War refused any heroization, while May 3, 1808 gave the anonymous victims monumental dignity. The Disasters of War refused any heroization, while May 3, 1808 gave the anonymous victims monumental dignity. The Disasters of War refused any heroization, while May 3, 1808 gave the anonymous victims monumental dignity. The Disasters of War refused any heroization, while May 3, 1808 gave the anonymous victims monumental dignity. The Disasters of black - Saturn, The Dog, the Sabbath - bring out fear, old age and absurdity directly on the walls. The Madhouse belongs to the same world of confinement and social criticism. Installed in Bordeaux in 1824, he still experimented with drawing and lithography until his death in 1828. Goya thus crossed Rococo, neoclassicism and romanticism without belonging entirely to anyone: his observation of power, the crowd and the unconscious thus opened the way to modern art. The "Francisco Goya" selection offers its own journey on this subject.

Goya paints what the century wants to show - celebration, rank and power - but also what it would like to hide: fear, violence, madness and solitude.