Goya, an account of his life and works

Goya's life reads like a novel: court painter to the Spanish nobility, witness to Napoleon's invasion, survivor of the Peninsula War, chronicler of the Inquisition's cruelty, and finally a hermit painting visions of darkness on the walls of his house. Calvert traces this extraordinary arc with scholarly precision, showing how a young artist who painted cheerful tapestries for the royal palace evolved into the prophet of modern art, the first painter to show war as it really is, to capture the aristocracy's hollowness with unflinching honesty, and to descend into the Black Paintings that remain among the most disturbing works in Western art. The book situates Goya amid the chaos of Spain's political upheavals, demonstrating that his genius was inseparable from the violence and corruption he witnessed. This is essential reading for anyone who wants to understand how art can bear witness to history's darkest moments.