Francisco de Goya was a Spanish romantic painter and printmaker born in 1746 in Zaragoza, Spain. He worked various jobs as a teenager to support his family's economic struggles before studying art. In his 20s, Goya traveled throughout Italy to learn from other great painters. Though he struggled early in his career, Goya later gained fame for paintings like "El Tres de Mayo" depicting the French occupation of Spain and the controversial "La maja desnuda", which broke norms by featuring a naked woman. Goya died in France in 1828 at age 82.

1. Francisco de Goya
Francisco José de Goya was a Spanish romantic painter and a printmaker. He was born in
Zaragoza on 30th
March 1746. He died in France, on 16th April 1828 at the age of 82.
While Francisco was a teenager, he worked in lots of places to help his family because it had
economic problems and he could not go to the Drawing Academy in Zaragoza until he was 14
years old. He studied on this academy until 1763 with his teacher José Luzán.
Seven years later, when Francisco was 24 years old, he travelled to Rome, Venice, Bologna and
other cities of Italy to learn from other great painters like Guido Reni, Rubens, El Veronés…
During his lifetime, Goya wasn’t successful in drawing. At that time he painted two pictures
called “Aníbal Vencedor” and “Sacrificio A Pan”. Later on he became famous for painting “El
Tres de Mayo”, on this picture you can see lots of people with guns pointing at one boy and
three people on the floor.
And “La maja desnuda”, this picture was the most controversial, because when Goya painted it,
it was forbidden to paint naked women. Lots of people think the woman in the picture was
Cayetana de Silva, the Duchess of Alba.