03/09/2026
PROFILES: GOYA
A new monthly series sharing interesting artists we enjoy for others to learn and find new
MONTH 1
Francisco Goya: Seeing the World Without Looking Away
Francisco de Goya (1746–1828) was one of Spain’s greatest artists: a court painter, printmaker and extraordinary draughtsman whose work changed dramatically throughout his life.
Born near Zaragoza, Goya eventually became First Painter to the Spanish court. Yet some of his most powerful works came from somewhere much more personal.
Goya’s drawings offer a remarkable view into his mind. In his early years, drawing was closely connected to study, observation and his work for the Royal Tapestry Factory. After a serious illness in the early 1790s left him deaf, his art took a more independent and introspective direction.
His sketchbooks became spaces for exploring everyday life, imagination, superstition, human weakness and the darker sides of society.
From these drawings came some of his most famous print series. The Caprichos, published in 1799, transformed drawing into biting satire, questioning ignorance, hypocrisy, superstition, social customs and abuses of power.
Goya was no longer simply recording what he saw. He was asking us to think about why people behave as they do.
Then came The Disasters of War, created during and after the Peninsular War. Here, Goya confronted violence directly: executions, suffering, hunger, death and the terrible consequences of conflict.
What makes Goya’s drawings so extraordinary is their honesty. They are sometimes beautiful, sometimes disturbing, sometimes mysterious, but rarely comfortable.
He drew people not simply as heroes or villains, but as complicated human beings.
More than two centuries later, Goya’s work still speaks to us because the questions he asked have not disappeared.
What does power do to people?
Why do we tolerate cruelty?
Where do fear, ignorance and violence come from?
And what can an artist do when the world becomes unbearable?
Goya drew what he saw — and what he feared.
In doing so, he created images that continue to see us.