Published in 2015 by Laurence King Publishing 361–373 City Road London EC1V 1LR United Kingdom T +44 20 7841 6900 F +44 20 7841 6910
[email protected] www.laurenceking.com This is © Text 2015 Wendy Bird © Illustrations 2015 Sarah Maycock Wendy Bird has asserted her right under the Copyright, Designs, and Patent Act 1988, to be identified as the Author of this Work. Goya All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopy, recording, WENDY BIRD or any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publisher. Illustrations by SARAH MAYCOCK A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library. ISBN: 978 1 78067 109 3 Series editor: Catherine Ingram Printed in China LAURENCE KING PUBLISHING Francisco de Goya y Lucientes was the first artist deliberately to pursue creating works of art for their own sake. Modern art begins with Goya. Straddling the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, he lived in a time of incredible cultural and social dynamism, when the old concepts of social hierarchy were being shaken by the new concept of equality for all. In this striking self-portait, Goya is in his early fifties and at the height of his career. The unsentimental documenation of his own face and character recalls Rembrandt’s own images of himself, and Goya acknowledged the seventeenth century Dutch master as an important influence. Other influences he cited were the Spanish master Velázquez and Nature. Within a decade of this image, Goya would see his comfortable, progressive world turned upside down and ripped apart by Napoleon’s armies who supposedly represented the new concept of equality.