DOI issue:
No. 59 (January, 1902)
DOI article:Bensusan, S. L.: A note upon the paintings of Francisco José Goya
DOI Page / Citation link:https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.22772#0203
A NOTE UPON THE PAINTINGS
OF FRANCISCO JOSE GOYA.
BY S. L. BENSUSAN.
Goya the etcher is well-known to artists all
the world over; Goya the lithographer is highly
esteemed, though the lithographs are hard to find ;
several Spanish chapels proclaim to tourists the
painter’s qualities and shortcomings as an interpreter
of sacred subjects, but Goya the portrait and genre
painter is almost ignored by collectors outside his
own native land. Etchings, lithographs, and
paintings on ivory have passed from country to
country, while the pictures have remained in Spain,
where many are even inaccessible to Spaniards. Yet
it is impossible to understand the life and works of
the greatest Spanish artist since the times of
Velasquez without studying his genre works,
which preserve the life of his time, with all its
picturesque associations now forgotten, and his
portraits, which have given
us an undying record
of the men and women
who made Spanish history,
both social and political,
during the years that pre-
ceded and followed the
French Revolution. Goya’s
pictures have not been
treated properly, though
they evoked a considerable
enthusiasm when painted.
The times were favourable
for the work of a man like
Goya, the genuine off-
spring of the Revolution-
ary forces at work on the
Gontinent; but the con-
dition of Europe was too
unsettled for the pictures
to be properly seen. Very
many were shown to the
public for the first time
at an exhibition held in
Madrid during the spring
of last year. Of these,
some had been badly
neglected and others had
been injudiciously restored.
A few were rather the effort
of the painter’s wildest mo-
ments than the deliberate
expression of his gifts, and
thearrangementand lighting
XV. No. 59.—January, 1902.
of the collection might have been considerably
improved. The net result of the exhibition was an
impression of work that had astonishing in-
equalities, that exhibited the height of power
and the depth of crudeness, the light, fanciful
emotion of a poet, the resolution of a strong-
willed man, and the gloomy vision of an eccentricity
not far removed from insanity. It was not like
the exhibition of one painter’s work, for the walls
offered suggestions of many masters; there were
Velasquez, Rembrandt, Reynolds, Gainsborough,
Watteau, Fragonard, and none can say how many
more, and yet underlying them all one felt the
brain of Francisco Jose Goya y Lucientes, perhaps
the most startling genius Spain has ever given to the
world. Artists find in his work suggestions of
many painters, literary men recognise the ex-
pression of the faith that was in the writers- who
brought about the Revolution ; he is claimed by the
adherents of the most advanced school of thought
BY LOPEZ OF VALENCIA
r55
PORTRAIT OF FRANCISCO JOSE GOYA
(In the Museo del Prado)
OF FRANCISCO JOSE GOYA.
BY S. L. BENSUSAN.
Goya the etcher is well-known to artists all
the world over; Goya the lithographer is highly
esteemed, though the lithographs are hard to find ;
several Spanish chapels proclaim to tourists the
painter’s qualities and shortcomings as an interpreter
of sacred subjects, but Goya the portrait and genre
painter is almost ignored by collectors outside his
own native land. Etchings, lithographs, and
paintings on ivory have passed from country to
country, while the pictures have remained in Spain,
where many are even inaccessible to Spaniards. Yet
it is impossible to understand the life and works of
the greatest Spanish artist since the times of
Velasquez without studying his genre works,
which preserve the life of his time, with all its
picturesque associations now forgotten, and his
portraits, which have given
us an undying record
of the men and women
who made Spanish history,
both social and political,
during the years that pre-
ceded and followed the
French Revolution. Goya’s
pictures have not been
treated properly, though
they evoked a considerable
enthusiasm when painted.
The times were favourable
for the work of a man like
Goya, the genuine off-
spring of the Revolution-
ary forces at work on the
Gontinent; but the con-
dition of Europe was too
unsettled for the pictures
to be properly seen. Very
many were shown to the
public for the first time
at an exhibition held in
Madrid during the spring
of last year. Of these,
some had been badly
neglected and others had
been injudiciously restored.
A few were rather the effort
of the painter’s wildest mo-
ments than the deliberate
expression of his gifts, and
thearrangementand lighting
XV. No. 59.—January, 1902.
of the collection might have been considerably
improved. The net result of the exhibition was an
impression of work that had astonishing in-
equalities, that exhibited the height of power
and the depth of crudeness, the light, fanciful
emotion of a poet, the resolution of a strong-
willed man, and the gloomy vision of an eccentricity
not far removed from insanity. It was not like
the exhibition of one painter’s work, for the walls
offered suggestions of many masters; there were
Velasquez, Rembrandt, Reynolds, Gainsborough,
Watteau, Fragonard, and none can say how many
more, and yet underlying them all one felt the
brain of Francisco Jose Goya y Lucientes, perhaps
the most startling genius Spain has ever given to the
world. Artists find in his work suggestions of
many painters, literary men recognise the ex-
pression of the faith that was in the writers- who
brought about the Revolution ; he is claimed by the
adherents of the most advanced school of thought
BY LOPEZ OF VALENCIA
r55
PORTRAIT OF FRANCISCO JOSE GOYA
(In the Museo del Prado)