The Hogarth of Spanish Painters

Francisco Goya (1746-1826) was the Court painter of Charles IV. and his son Ferdinand VII. With Murillo and the seventeenth century the old Spanish School of Art closes; with Goya the Modern School begins. He was a man of great original genius but eccentric. He has been called "the Hogarth of Spanish painters," and there is certainly a striking similarity of genius between the Englishman and the Spaniard. Hogarth in many a famous painting touched up the vices of court life; Goya was his equal, as a satirist, in ecclesiastical life. He has also been called the Rabelais of painters, equaling the great French satirist in ridiculing ascetic monks, and priests, and friars, under the form of asses and apes. But as a portrait and genre painter he was almost too realistic. In politics he was a "Liberal," although a court painter. He hated Marie Louise, wife of Charles IV., and every portrait of her shows more plainly than words his estimate of her character. His equestrian portrait, and also the large portrait group of the family of Charles IV., his most important work, also some samples of his cartoons for tapestries to adorn the present royal palace, give a vivid idea of the manners and customs of his day, especially when water was an expensive luxury in Madrid. But above all else he is celebrated as the great painter of the National Game. He was an ardent admirer of the bull-fight, and has been the most realistic portrayer of that brutal sport. The Spaniards are therefore very proud of him, and his paintings command almost fabulous prices. Goya was a school unto himself; it is said that he painted with his palet-knife, a sponge and his thumb. He was fiery, original, masterly, and overflowing with tremendous power. He was the first to take up the fallen brush of Velasquez and Murillo; he was a lone star in the long night of Spanish art.