Boy on a Ram

Oil on canvasFrancisco José de Goya y Lucientes (Spanish, 1746–1828)/1786–87

Description

As painter to the king of Spain, Francisco de Goya also designed tapestries for the royal residences. The artist made small oil sketches to work out the designs, followed by full-scale painted cartoons that served as guides for the weavers at the king’s tapestry works. This cartoon was produced for a tapestry in a series decorating the dining room in the Palace of El Pardo outside Madrid. The room’s large panels illustrate a traditional decorative subject, the four seasons, but Goya exercised his imagination in the smaller panels above the doors, producing scenes of children and animals like this one.

Provenance

Real Fábrica de Tapices de Santa Bárbara, 1786/87 (painted as a cartoon for a series of tapestries executed there for Rey Carlos III for the palacio at El Pardo, outside Madrid); Livinio Stuyk y Vandergoten, by 1887 (director of the Real Fábrica de Tapices de Santa Bárbara); by descent to his son, Gabino Stuyk, Madrid, by 1900. Real Fábrica de Tapices, Madrid, by 1911 [this and the following according to a letter from March 19, 1991, from Melissa de Medeiros, Knoedler and Company, to Mary Kuzniar; copy in curatorial file]; sold to Knoedler and Company, London and New York, September 1911; sold to Charles Deering (died 1927), April 1912; by descent to his daughter, Mrs. Chauncey McCormick, Chicago; by descent to her son, Brooks McCormick, Chicago; given by Mr. and Mrs. Brooks McCormick to the Art Institute of Chicago, 1979.

Dimensions

127.2 × 112.1 cm (50 1/16 × 44 1/8 in.)

Source

The Art Institute of Chicago

Movement / Period

18th Century

Accession No

111559

Official Citations

[The Art Institute of Chicago Official Record][Full Resolution Image]

Curatorial Affinity Stream

Continuing the Universe of Francisco José de Goya y Lucientes (Spanish, 1746–1828)

18th Century • Spain • Harmonious Works & Contemporaries

Continuous Discovery