“I had established an enviable scheme of life. I refused to dance attendance in the ante-chambers of the great. If anyone wanted something from me he had to ask. I was much run after, but if the person was not of rank, or a friend, I worked [painted] for nobody.”

— Francisco De Goya

letter to his friend Don Martín Zapater, c. 1789; from: Francisco Zapater y Gomez : Goya; Noticias biograficas, Zaragoza, 1868, La Perse Verencia; as quoted in Francisco Goya, Hugh Stokes, Herbert Jenkins Limited Publishers, London, 1914, p. 182
1780s

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Francisco De Goya 40

Spanish painter and printmaker (1746–1828) 1746–1828

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letter to his friend Don Martín Zapater, signed and dated Madrid, 1 August 1786, location: Pierpont Morgan Library Dept. of Literary and Historical Manuscripts http://www.themorgan.org/collection/102401
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