1806
oil
panel
From the collection of Art Institute of Chicago
Friar Pedro Shoots El Maragato as His Horse Runs Off is a 1806 oil by Francisco Goya, a Romanticism work, held at Art Institute of Chicago.
You see a friar in a brown robe firing a rifle at a wounded bandit on the ground while a horse bolts away. This painting shows a real moment from 1806 Spain—when a quiet monk turned the tables on a dangerous outlaw. Goya painted it like a news report, not a grand legend. The friar’s calm face and the bandit’s wild struggle make it feel immediate, almost like a snapshot. If you like how Goya freezes action, look up *chiaroscuro*—the way he uses sharp light and shadow to make the scene pop.
In the summer of 1806 in Spain, on the run after a prison escape, the dreaded bandit El Maragato overtook a family in their home and held them hostage. Among the family members was Pedro de Zaldivia, a lay Franciscan brother who stopped by the house to beg for alms. The humble monk ended up turning the tables on his captor, seizing El Maragato’s rifle and shooting him in the thigh to subdue him before he could grab another gun from his horse. The story of the heroic friar swept through Spain, not only via reports in newspapers and pamphlets but also in ballads and prints. Although at the time…
One of a series of six small paintings in an inventory of Goya’s collection, Madrid, taken in 1812 for the division of property between the artist and his son Javier following the death of the artist's wife; the group of small paintings marked X8 being allotted to the son: "Seis quadros del Maragato señalados con el número ocho, en 700 [reales]" (the inventory mark has been removed from the painting and is no longer visible) [see Gassier and Wilson 1971]; presumably Javier Goya after 1812. Lafitte collection, Madrid; sale, Paris, Hôtel Drouot, March 7, 1861, bought in together with other…
New York, Metropolitan Museum of Art, Spanish Painting, 1928, cat. 7–12, ill. The Art Institute of Chicago, Century of Progress Exhibition of Paintings and Sculpture, June 1–November 1, 1933, cat. 166-d. The Art Institute of Chicago, Century of Progress Exhibition of Paintings and Sculpture, June 1–November 1, 1934, cat. 69-d. M. Knoedler & Co., New York, Loan Exhibition of Paintings by Goya, April 9-April 21, 1934, cat. 16 (ill.). Columbus, Ohio, Gallery of Fine Arts, Exhibition of Spanish Art, 1936. The Art Institute of Chicago, Goya, 1941, pp. 46–49, cat. 75 (ill.) The Toledo Museum of…
Read the full account in the museum source.
Francisco José de Goya y Lucientes (; Spanish: ; 30 March 1746 – 16 April 1828) was a Spanish romantic painter and printmaker.
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