Portrait of Don Juan Antonio Cuervo1819
This portrait both testifies to Goya’s friendship with Cuervo and presents the sitter as a cutting-edge intellectual. More about this work
About this work
This portrait both testifies to Goya’s friendship with Cuervo and presents the sitter as a cutting-edge intellectual. Director of the Royal Academy of San Fernando, the official academy for artists and architects in Spain, Cuervo appears with his plan for the recent renovation of Madrid’s Church of Santiago. The jacket with red and gold brocade identifies him as a member of the academy.
Text from the Cleveland Museum of Art.
How it was made
- Oil paint
- Pigment ground in a drying oil, usually linseed. It dries slowly, so painters could blend on the canvas, build up thin translucent glazes, and rework a picture over weeks. Canvas replaced wooden panels in the 1500s because it is lighter and can be rolled.
Francisco Goya
Spanish, 1746–1828 · Born in Fuendetodos; died in Bordeaux.
Goya began with tapestry designs for the royal factory in Madrid and rose to become first painter to the Spanish court under Charles IV. After a serious illness left him deaf in the 1790s, his work grew darker and more personal. His etched series, Los Caprichos and The Disasters of War, satirise folly and record the atrocities of the Peninsular War, and he painted the Black Paintings directly on the walls of his own house. He spent his last years in exile in Bordeaux.
Written by Ochre Editions.
Rights and the museum’s record
Public domain. The Cleveland Museum of Art has dedicated this image to the public domain under CC0, so anyone may copy, adapt and use it, for any purpose, without asking. Our prints and files are reproductions made from the museum’s image; the museum doesn’t endorse them.
- Object number
- 1943.90
- Credit
- Courtesy of the Cleveland Museum of Art
- Type
- Painting
- Department
- Modern European Painting and Sculpture
- Licence
- CC0 1.0 Universal
- Museum record
- See it on the museum’s site
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