Black Paintings

Rare card · No. 20848

The Black Paintings (Spanish: Pinturas negras) is the name given to a group of 14 paintings by Francisco Goya from the later years of his life, likely between 1820 and 1823. They portray intense, haunting themes, reflective of both his fear of insanity and his bleak outlook on humanity. In 1819, at the age of 72, Goya moved into a two-storey house outside Madrid that was called Quinta del Sordo (Deaf Man's Villa). It is thought that Goya began the paintings in the following year. Although the house had been named after the previous owner, who was deaf, Goya too was nearly deaf at the time as a result of an unknown illness he had suffered when he was 46. The paintings originally were painted as murals on the walls of the house, later being "hacked off" the walls and attached to canvas by owner Baron Frédéric Émile d'Erlanger. They are now in the Museo del Prado in Madrid. After the Napoleonic Wars and the internal turmoil of the changing Spanish government, Goya developed an embittered...

Read on Wikipedia · Image Manuel Asenjo († 1916), Public domain