Goya's Last Works

Francisco Jose de Goya y Lucientes (1746-1828) had a prolific career and spent the last four years of his life in Bordeaux with other political emigres from Spain. In those years and just before his departure from Spain, he created a body of work that is little known to the public and consists of small-scale, intimate pieces, including uncommissioned portraits of friends and family, miniature paintings on ivory plaques, and numerous drawings and lithographs. These simple, bold, and brilliant works attest to the artist's continuing vitality in his old age and also offer some insight into his life during that last period in Bordeaux. They are the culminating achievement of a great artist who was, in his own words, "still learning" as he faced death.

Susan Grace Galassi is Curator at The Frick Collection, New York.