Enfilade

Now on view at the Hispanic Society Museum & Library:

Goya and the Age of Revolution

Hispanic Society Museum & Library, New York, 11 December 2025 — 28 June 2026

Francisco Goya, Portrait of Manuel Lapeña, Marquis of Bondad Real, detail, 1799, oil on canvas, 225 × 140 cm (Hispanic Society of America).

Beginning in the late 18th century, three interconnected revolutions transformed the world. Supported by Spain and France, the American Revolution (1775–1783), would inspire the French Revolution (1787–1799), which led to the rise of Napoleon, who invaded Spain in 1808, sparking the Spanish War of Independence, known as the Peninsular War (1808–1814). All three conflicts impacted the life and work of Francisco de Goya y Lucientes (1746–1828). The artist painted the portraits of at least two protagonists of the American Revolution: Admiral Jose de Mazarredo (ca. 1785, private collection) and General Francisco de Saavedra (1798, The Courtauld, London). Caught in the middle of the Peninsular War, Goya captured acts of heroism and atrocity in a series of 82 prints executed between 1810 and 1820 known as the Disasters of War. From the promise of egalitarianism to the horrors of battle, the story of revolution animates some of Goya’s most powerful works.

To mark the 250th anniversary of the U.S. Declaration of Independence, the present installation displays a selection of works by Francisco de Goya and his circle broaching the subject of war, revolution, and independence. This initiative is supported by the Goya Research Center. Launched in 2024 by the Hispanic Society Museum & Library, the Goya Research Center aims to advance on the study of Francisco de Goya and bring him to new audiences through public programs, exhibitions, and publications.

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Note (added 2 February 2026)— When the show opened in December, the Museum’s Instagram page included a powerful detail of Eugenio Velázquez’s Victims of War, painted in the 1860s. In these days of war and rumors of war, it all feels all too poignant. –CH