Goya: A Spanish Painter of Romanticism & Court Painter - Biography Sample

Introduction

Francisco Goya was a romantic paint maker and painter. He was born in Fuendetodos in Aragon to a lower-middle-class family in 1746. He studied painting under Jose Luzan y Martinez from age 14 then moved to Madrid to study with Anton Raphael Mengs. In 1773, he married Josefa Bayeu (Telbin, p.556). However, an endless series of pregnancies and miscarriages left them with only one son who lived to adulthood. In 1886, Goya became a court painter to the Spanish Crown. In 1793, he suffered from an undiagnosed severe illness which made him deaf. It made his work pessimistic and darker. In 1795, he got appointed Director of the Royal Academy. In 1799, Goya became the Prime Court Painter.

Is your time best spent reading someone else’s essay? Get a 100% original essay FROM A CERTIFIED WRITER!

Save 25%

In 1801, Goya painted Charles IV of Spain and His Family an art influenced by Velazquez. When Napoleon led the French army into war against Spain in 1807, Goya remained in Madrid during the war affecting him deeply. The effect can be inferred from his 1814 paintings The Second of May 1808 and The Third of May 1808. Some of his other famous works include the Caprichos and Los Disparates. Majority of his paintings were associated with political and religious corruption, mental asylums, witches and insanity suggesting that Goya feared for both his mental health and for his county's fate.

Musée d'Orsay

Ernest Meissonier was born in Lyon, France. Charles, his father, was the proprietor of a factory located in Saint-Denis, northern side of Paris (Linder et al., p.2730). The factory manufactured dyes for the textile industry. As the eldest son, Ernest was expected to follow his father into the dye business. However, ever since Ernest was in school, he showed a desire for painting, evidenced by some previous sketches dated 1823. At the age of seventeen, he sought leave from his parents to become an artist.

In 1871 at the end of the Franco-Prussian war, Ernest drafted an idea for a painting that would represent the Siege of Paris. He took the idea up much later and completed the art in 1884. His vision combines story and reality. The subject matter of the art is seen in the painting. The figure of Paris, which is symbolized by Madame Meissonier covered in a lion skin and a black veil, in front of a torn French flag, towers above the remains of a barricade. On top of her, in a sky full of swelling clouds of unfolding catastrophe and ash, the presence of feminine drifts over a fire destroyed Paris. From the art, we see that even in defeat, uninjured soldiers continue to fight.

Similarity and Differences

The two drawings use a method of painting where they have their pigments bound to the canvas together by oil mainly linseed (Hagen, p.1750). The further have a common ground on their driving theme where they are related to war and were meant to inspire the war strategies and periods. The drawings are further drawn during the political regimes where they gave solace to the warring groups of the time.

Conclusion

The drawings were meant to communicate strength and motivation to the people that were in conflict and motivate those who thought of being oppressed. The presence of artistic works shed lights of solace and spoke unity to people like in the case of Siege of Paris.

Works Cited

Hagen, Rose-Marie, Francisco Goya, and Rainer Hagen. Francisco Goya, 1746-1828. Taschen, 2003.

Linder, Lauri A., et al. "Comparison of good days and sick days of school-age children with cancer reflected through their drawings." Quality of Life Research 26.10 (2017): 2729-2738.

Telbin, William. "THE PAINTING OF PANORAMAS." The Magazine of art (1900): 555-558.