Artwork

Francesco Goya y Lucientes, Pintor (Francesco Goya y Lucientes, Painter)

Francesco Goya y Lucientes, Pintor (Francesco Goya y Lucientes, Painter) is an ink print by the Romanticist artist Francisco Goya. It dates from 1799 and is held in the collection of the National Gallery of Art.

About this work

Overview

Created in 1799, this print is a self‑portrait by Francisco Goya, executed with a combination of etching, aquatint, drypoint and burin on laid paper. The image shows a man in a broad‑brimmed hat, his head turned slightly and his chin resting on a hand, rendered in stark black‑and‑white with a textured, scratchy surface.

Subject & Meaning

The work presents Goya as both painter and individual, emphasizing the artist’s presence within the shifting social and political climate of late‑eighteenth‑century Spain. By signing the piece "Goya y Lucientes, Pintor," he foregrounds his professional identity while subtly commenting on the evolving role of the creator in a changing society.

Technique & Style

Goya employed a layered approach: the primary lines were incised by drypoint, the broader tonal fields achieved through aquatint, and finer details added with a burin. This mixture produces a rough, tactile quality, especially evident in the intricate rendering of the hat and collar, and reflects his experimental handling of printmaking media.

History & Provenance

The portrait belongs to a series of self‑representations Goya produced while serving as court painter in Madrid. It was created during his tenure at the royal court, a period when he was documenting contemporary tensions through both prints and paintings, bridging traditional academic methods with emerging modern sensibilities.

Context

At the turn of the 19th century, Spain was undergoing significant political upheaval and cultural transformation. Goya’s self‑portrait, like his other works of the era, captures the artist’s awareness of these changes, positioning himself between the legacy of the Old Masters and the nascent modern artistic approaches that would define the next century.