Goya : the portraits / Xavier Bray.

Published to accompany the exhibition Goya: The Portraits. The National Gallery, London 7 October 2015-10 January 2016--verso title page.

Includes bibliographical references (pages 254-263) and index.

Sponsor foreword --Director's preface --Author's acknowledgements --Reflections on Goya's portraits/Manuela B. mena Marques --Goya: the portraits/Xavier Bray --Francisco Goya y Lucientes: the making of a portrait painter --The first portraits (1780-1784) --Politicians and aristocrats (1785-1788) --Portraying the Spanish Enlightenment (1789-1799) --First court painter to the king (1799-1808) --Goya and the Spanish Grandees (1803-1806) --Goya's friends, colleagues and family (1797-1815) --Liberals and despots (1808-1815) --Portraits in Goya's later years (1815-1828) --Notes --Biographies/Thomas Gayford --Picture notes/Allison Goudie.

Francisco de Goya y Lucientes (1746-1828) was one of the greatest portraitists of his time. The first large-scale book devoted to the topic, this handsome volume features portraits that shed light on Goya and his subjects, as well as on the politically turbulent and culturally dynamic era in which they lived. Whether portraying royalty, philosophers, military men, or friends, these works are memorable both for the insight they provide into the relationship between artist and sitter, and for their penetrating psychological depth. Xavier Bray traces Goya's career from his beginnings at the Madrid court of Charles III to his final years in Bordeaux, played out against the backdrop of war with France and the social, political, and cultural shift of the Enlightenment. More than 60 remarkable portraits, including drawings and miniatures, reveal the full range of Goya's technical and stylistic achievements, while also depicting sitters with a previously unparalleled humanity. His break with traditional, late-18th-century conventions allowed him to achieve a new modernity in portraiture that paved the way for artists such as Matisse and Picasso. Exhibition: National Gallery, London, UK (7.10.2015-10.1.2016)