ECR French Nineteenth-Century Art Network Research Forum:
Goya's Caprichos in Nineteenth-Century France: Politics of the Grotesque
Dr. Paula Fayos-Pérez - Leonardo Scholarship (BBVA) - Universidad Complutense de Madrid / Université de Strasbourg
Thursday 30 January 2025 1700 (GMT) // 1800 (CET) // 1200 (EST) // 0900 (PST)
The impact of Goya’s work on nineteenth-century French art was immense, long lasting, and multifaceted. Whereas in Spain Goya was associated with his royal portraits, in France he became known as the author of the Caprichos set of prints, which were obsessively studied by artists like Eugène Delacroix—who made over 40 copies. The French Romantics interpreted them as a lampoon of late eighteenth-century Spain, thus overlooking that the true modernity of Goya’s work lies in its universalism, as a mirror reflecting the essence of humankind, unfettered by patriotism—this is also true of his monsters and witches, which are nothing more than the deformed reflection of humans. We could talk about a two-way influence: Goya contributed to shape French Romantic art—and thus the beginning of modern art—and the Romantics in turn modelled his critical image. The established interpretation of Goya is therefore partly based on Romantic stereotypes, many of which have been perpetuated to this day.
Paula Fayos-Pérez is a postdoctoral researcher in Art History (Leonardo scholarship, BBVA Foundation) and is linked to the research groups ARCHE (Université de Strasbourg) and SU+MA (Universidad Complutense de Madrid). Paula obtained her PhD in 2019 from the University of Cambridge. She worked as a researcher at the Wellington Collection (Apsley House), and has published articles in The Burlington Magazine (2019, 2020), Boletín del Museo del Prado (2022), and Print Quarterly (2023). The book Goya’s Caprichos in Nineteenth-Century France. Politics of the Grotesque, based on her dissertation, has just been published by Centro de Estudios Europa Hispánica (2024).
Paula is currently researching the concept of “influence” in Goya and the “Goya network” in nineteenth-century Spain and France.