Portrait of Francisco Goya, from "The Portfolio"
Etcher Louis Lucas French
After Vicente López y Portaña Spanish
Sitter Goya (Francisco de Goya y Lucientes) Spanish
Not on view
Based on a portrait by López from 1826, now in the Museo del Prado in Madrid, this etching accompanied a three-part article on Goya in the art periodical "The Portfolio," in 1879. The publication and its editor, Philip Gilbert Hamerton, actively promoted printmaking, especially etching, and commissioned this full-page plate from Lucas expressly for the issue. The article by Hamerton was not sympathetic to the visionary Spanish painter decrying that he was a "monster of immorality, impudence, and ingratitude". Goya's reputation in Britain in the nineteenth century lagged behind that in Continental Europe.