Francisco Goya

Francisco Goya was a talented Spanish painter and printmaker, and is considered one of the last of the Old Masters of painting, as well as the first of the moderns. He began his apprenticeship in painting at the age of 14, and his talent was quickly recognized. He first submitted entries to the Royal Academy of Fine Arts in 1763, and then later in 1766, both of which were denied. But, in 1771, he traveled to Rome and won second place in a painting competition and secured employment designing tapestries at the Royal Tapestry Factory. He completed over 42 patterns, which were used to cover the walls in the newly built palaces around Madrid, giving him an immediate royal audience.

Francisco José de Goya y Lucientes

• Born: March 30, 1746; Fuendetodos, Spain  
  
• Died: April 16, 1828; Bordeaux, France
  
• Active Years: 1770 - 1828. Nationality: Spanish
• Art Movement: Romanticism  Field: painting, printmaking
• Influenced by: Albrecht Durer, Diego Velazquez
• Influenced on: Pablo Picasso, Chaim Soutine, Roberto Montenegro, Jose Clemente Orozco, Pierre-Auguste Renoir, Max Klinger, Alfred Dehodencq, Russ Warren, William Balthazar Rose 
• Teachers: José Luzán, Anton Raphael Mengs
• Pupils: Rosario Weiss Zorrilla
• Art institution: Real Academia de Bellas Artes de San Fernando, Madrid, Spain
• Family and Relatives: Rosario Weiss Zorrilla