Art Captions

Author notes

0044. Old men eating.

CornTown

on Feb. 24, 2010

By Francisco Goya (1746-1828)
Circa. 1819-23
Late Baroque/Romanticism

Among Goya most controversial works are those known only as the “Black paintings”. Named for their black backgrounds and disturbing imagery, these fourteen wall paintings were only discovered after Goya's death, when his house was searched for a will.
No one knows why Goya painted these works, some believed that it was an expression of Goya's loneliness as he had gone near deaf and usually avoided people. Others believe that the work was representational of the Spanish war and the cruelty of human kind that Goya had seen throughout his lifetime. Whatever they stood for, one thing was positive; that these paintings were very important and needed to be preserved immediately. To do this, the Spanish government literally cut out the walls out of Goya's house and brought the black paintings to museums and other places of study. Because of this, these painting which would have rotted away in a lifetime are still with us today.