A man breaking up a fight; page 82 from the 'Images of Spain' album (F)
ca. 1812–20
Medium
Brush, brown ink washes, touches of black chalk, on laid paper
Dimensions
Sheet: 8-1/16 x 5-5/8 in. (20.5 x 14.3cm)
Classification
Drawings
Department
Drawings and Prints
Museum
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY
Credit
Harris Brisbane Dick Fund, 1935
Accession Number
35.103.45
Tags
Art Historical Context
In the turbulent years around 1812–1820, Francisco de Goya Lucientes captured the raw underbelly of Spanish society in his private *Images of Spain* albums—intimate sketchbooks that reveal his deepening disillusionment amid the Peninsular War's aftermath and political upheaval. *A man breaking up a*, folio 82 from Album F, depicts a chaotic brawl interrupted by a peacemaker, embodying Goya's unflinching gaze on human folly, violence, and fleeting order. These works, unseen by the public in his lifetime, mark his shift toward introspective Romanticism, blending satire with profound empathy for ...
About the Artist
Goya (Francisco de Goya y Lucientes) · 1746–1828
Francisco José de Goya y Lucientes (1746-1828) was a Spanish painter and printmaker considered the last of the Old Masters and the first of the moderns. Rising from modest provincial origins to become First Court Painter to Charles IV, Goya's career spanned the Enlightenment's optimism and the brutal Napoleonic invasion that shattered it. A mysterious illness in 1793 left him permanently deaf and ...