Brief Biography-Francisco de Goya y Lucientes was born in the remote village of Fuendetodos, Spain. At fourteen, he studied under José Luzán in the town of Saragossa. He became acquainted with the artist Francisco Bayeu y Subías, who later worked in the court of Madrid; Goya joined him in his atelier there. Unable to enter the Academy of Art in Madrid, he went to Italy, where he achieved success in Parma. Goya returned to Spain and married Bayeu’s sister, subsequently working under Bayeu and the German artist Anton Raphael Mengs. In 1785, he was made Deputy Director of Painting at the Madrid Academy, and under Charles IV, he became a royal painter, becoming the First Painter to the King in 1799. By this time, he had lost his hearing through a severe illness, which changed his painting style; this did not affect his receiving many portrait commissions for aristocrats. In 1808, Napoleon’s brother Joseph became ruler of Spain; however, Goya remained a court painter, and the subsequent riots led Goya to do a series of works depicting the atrocities committed. As a result, he gained the Royal Order of Spain, a medal he never wore; this enabled him to be in good favour when King Ferdinand VII regained the throne in 1814. Goya retired as a court painter a year later and was awarded a pension by the King; however, while continuing to paint, it became the period of his ‘black paintings,’ images with much suffering in many of them. Due to further political unrest, he eventually settled in Bordeaux to live with his mistress Leocadia Weiss and their two children; his wife passed away in 1812. He died from a stroke in Bordeaux in 1828.