Francisco José de Goya (1746-1828) was included in the Armory Show as the
first artist in the organizers’ timeline of modern art. According to the chronology
of modern art devised by the American artist Arthur B. Davies, president of the
Armory Show exhibition committee, known as the Association of American
Painters and Sculptors (AAPS), Goya was grouped with Ingres, Delacroix and
Courbet as a forerunner of modern art. His inventive, visceral and dark
compositions captured the social and political strife of contemporary Spanish
life in the wake of the Age of Enlightenment and offered a glimpse toward future
artistic trends. Goya’s subject matter, including the carnage of war, witchcraft
and superstition, troubadours and candid scenes of daily life, deeply influenced
the Romantic and Realist schools that emerged in France and instilled an artistic
tradition in Spain that would later be revisited by Manet, Picasso and Dalí,
among others.
The only work by Goya presented in the Armory Show was a miniature painting
on ivory
Monk and an Old Woman
—a rather grotesque pair, now at the Princeton
University Art Museum. Goya painted this work at the end of his career in 1824-25,
after he left Spain to spend his final years in Bordeaux.
The inclusion of a miniature painting by Goya may seem a bit contrived, but
even more surprising was the fact that this very small work was installed in the
main entry gallery (Gallery A) along with a hodgepodge of American and
European decorative arts, painting and sculpture. Goya’s name was rarely cited
in the literature accompanying the Armory Show and, unlike Ingres, Delacroix
and Courbet, he was not installed at the "beginning" of any particular
movement, but instead, stood alone, separate from a specific line of progeny.
Intellectually, it seems that Goya was a necessary component in the canon of
modern art, however the AAPS failed to procure a noteworthy example of his
work. The Goya miniature was lent to the exhibition by the AAPS member and
prolific collector, New York lawyer John Quinn (who also purchased between
$5,000 and $6,000 worth of art in the Armory Show, approximately $118,000
to $141,000 today).
In the 19th century, Goya’s inventive genius was disseminated predominantly
through several series of his etchings and lithographs, published both during his
lifetime (such as
Los Caprichos
and
La Tauromaquia
) and posthumously (
Los
Desastres de la Guerra
and
Los Proverbios
, issued in 1863 and 1864 respectively).
The prints in this catalogue (lots 1-4) arguably represent the aspect of Goya’s
oeuvre
that was most influential to later French Realists and Impressionists as
they were far more accessible than his paintings. While Eugène Delacroix was
an avid collector of Goya’s prints, for example, his style and technique were also
emulated by equally influential French artists such as Édouard Manet (lots 9-12).
