GOYA: Colour Library

Originally published by the great art publisher Phaidon Press in 1969, there was a second and third revised and enlarged edition in 1994, of which we have a rare 2014 reprint in outsize beautiful quality softback with 89 illustrations, 48 in colour and measuring 22.86 x 30.5cm. Francisco Goya (1746-1828) is one of Spain's most famous artist and widely acknowledged as an outstanding painter in the European tradition and often called the last of the Old Masters and the first of the Moderns. From the gaiety and tenderness of the Tapestry Cartoons to the mysterious ferocity of the Black Paintings made in his old age, enjoy in close up detail reproduced in full page colour such masterpieces as A Woman Reading A Letter, The Bewitched Man, Blind Man's Bluff, The Fall, Self-Portrait with Dr Arrieta, The Forge, and a comparison between The Execution of Maximilian by Manet with Goya's The Third of May 1808: The Execution of the Defenders of Madrid, a bloody scene capturing the last seconds before the man in the white shirt his arms outstretched in front of horrified onlookers faces the firing squad at close range. This contrasts with the tenderness of the six year old Victor Guye wearing the uniform of page to Joseph Bonaparte with its brocaded jacket and open lace collar standing holding a book, or of Mariano Goya the artist's grandson at around the same age seated beside an enormous musical score while he is beating time with a roll of paper. 128pp. Very low original cover price of £6.95.