Francisco De Goya: Other

“[T]here are no rules in painting and.... the oppression, or servile obligation, of making all study or follow the same path is a great impediment for the Young who profess this very difficult art that approaches the divine more than any other.”

Francisco De Goya

In a report, 1792 which Goya was invited to write to the Academy of San Fernando on the subject of teaching art; as cited by Robert Hughes, in: Goya. Borzoi Book - Alfred Knopf, New York, 2003, p. 126
at the end of 1792 Goya abruptly broke off work on his tapestry designs and left Madrid for the South. In Jan. 1793 he wrote a note: 'had been ill for two months and asked permission to stop designing and go to Sevilla to recuperate'. There are no more letters written by Goya then; no one can say more about this crisis / illness, according to Robert Hughes
1790s

Art , Study , Painting

“I sent you a lithographic proof that shows a fight of young bulls.... and if you found it worthy of distribution, I could send whatever you wish... I once again ask your advice, for I have three others made, of the same size and bullfight subjects.”

Francisco De Goya

letter to Joaquín Ferrer, Bordeaux, End of 1825; as quoted by Robert Hughes, in: Goya. Borzoi Book - Alfred Knopf, New York, 2003, p. 390 & note 8
Goya's quote indicates how quickly he learned the for him new print method of lithography; the litho-prints here referred became collective known as the 'Bulls of Bordeaux' https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Bullfight_in_a_divided_ring,_from_the_%27Bulls_of_Bordeaux%27_MET_270385.jpg https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:A_picador_caught_by_a_bull,_from_the_%27Bulls_of_Bordeaux%27_MET_MM7175.jpg; and the rarest Goya-prints because they were published in a small edition of one hundred sets by the Bordeaux printer Gaulon.
1820s

Fight

“I can hardly describe the discord produced by the comparison of the retouched part of the painting and the part left untouched, the former having lost entirely the immediacy and brio of the brushwork and the latter the mastery of sensitive and discerning touches... For it is true that the more one retouches under the pretext of restoration, the more harm one does, and even the artists themselves, were they able to return, would not able to retouch their painting perfectly on account of the necessary change in the hue of pigments over time… No painting by Titian should be relined, nor any paintings by a number of other painters.... and, even when it is possible, the operation is more likely to result in deterioration than in improvement of the painting.”

Francisco De Goya

from his Letters 263-264. circa 1801; in Goya, A life in Letters, edited and introduced by Sarah Simmons; translations by Philip Troutman, London, Pimlico, 2004
Early 1801 - Goya was then First Painter of the Court - the artist is sent to check the results of some restoration operated on works belonging to the Spanish crown. His 263-264 letters reveal the total opposition of Goya against any cleaning or restoration of older paintings
1800s

Change , Time , Parting , Painting

“[the painting 'Yard with Lunatics' shows].. a yard with lunatics, and two of them fighting completely naked while their warder beats them, and others in sacks; (it is a scene I witnessed at first hand in Zaragoza).”

Francisco De Goya

letter to his friend Bernardo de Iriarte, 7 Jan, 1794; as quoted by Jane Kromm, in The art of frenzy, 2002, p. 194 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yard_with_Lunatics
The painting 'Yard with Lunatics' (Spanish: Corral de locos) is a small oil-on-tinplate painting completed by Goya between 1793 and 1794; Goya says here that the painting was informed by scenes of institutions he witnessed in his youth in Zaragoza
1790s

Fight , Painting

“One to the other / Unos á otros' - Thus goes the world. We mock at and deceive each other. He who, yesterday, was the ball, is to-day the horseman in the ring. Fortune directs the feast, and distributes the parts according to the inconstancy of its caprice.”

Francisco De Goya

title of Capricho no. 77 and Goya's inscription on this plate; from Paul Lefort, in Francisco Goya: etude biographique et critique, suivi de l'essai d'un catalogue raisonne de son oeuvre grave et lithographe; published in the 'Gazette des Beaux-Arts', February, 1867; April, 1867; February, 1868; April, 1868; August, 1868
1790s

World , Parting

“My position is entirely different from what the majority of the public imagine... I want a great deal, firstly because my position entails expenditure, and secondly because I like it. Being a very well-known man I cannot reduce my expenses as other people do. I was about to ask for an increase of salary, but the conditions are so unfavorable that I must set the idea aside.”

Francisco De Goya

letter to his friend Martín Zapater, https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q3915977 and https://nl.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bestand:Francisco_de_Goya_-_Portrait_of_Mart%C3%ADn_Zapater_-_Google_Art_Project.jpg, February, 1790, from Francisco Zapater y Gomez: Goya; Noticias biograficas, Zaragoza, 1868, La Perse Verencia, p. 50
Goya is reacting on a request to borrow money, which arouses his quick protest
1790s

People , Imagination , Idea

“Fatal consequences of the bloody war against Bonaparte in Spain. And other emphatic caprices”

Francisco De Goya

1800s

War

“The author had not followed the precedents of any other artist, nor has he been able to copy Nature itself.... He who departs from Nature will surely merits high esteem, since he has to put before thee yes of the public forms and poses which have existed previously in the darkness and confusion of an irrational mind..”

Francisco De Goya

1790s, Goya's announcement about 'Los Caprichos', 6 Febr. 1799

Nature

“What a scandal to hear nature deprecated in comparison to Greek statues by one who knows neither one nor the other without acknowledging that the smallest part of Nature confounds and amazes those who know most. What statue or cast of it might there be that is not copied from divine nature?”

Francisco De Goya

In a report in 1792 - Goya wrote to the Academy of San Fernando, on 'teaching art'; as quoted in Francisco Goya y Licientis, Janis Tomlinson, Phaodon 1999, p. 70
1790s

Nature , Parting