This comprehensive volume celebrates the seminal artist widely regarded as the last of the Old Masters and the first of the moderns.

Featuring a gallery of the artist’s greatest works—from royal portraits and religious scenes to naturalistic streetscapes and bizarre grotesques—this accessible volume showcases rarely seen paintings from private collections alongside iconic favorites with insightful text by one of the Prado’s leading experts. 

With a career spanning over sixty years and bridging the eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries, Goya has a pivotal place in the artistic canon. Published on the eve of the 200th anniversary of his death, this book features beloved classics such as the Duchess of Alba and The Clothed Maja but also rarely seen works including Charles IV of Spain and His Family and The Duke and Duchess of Osuna and Their Children. 

An astute observer of the human condition, he depicted humanity’s many dualities—order and disorder, reason and irrationality, dreams and nightmares—as seen in his most haunting work, The Disasters of War chronicling famine and suffering in the Napoleonic era. 

Based on the latest scholarship and filled with fresh perspectives, this book is essential to understanding one of the world’s trailblazing artists.

About The Author

Manuela B. Mena Marqués is Curator of Drawings and Prints at the Prado, where she previously was Deputy Director of Conservation and Research, Head of Conservation of Eighteenth-century Painting, and member of the Board of Trustees.