The Spanish liberal court painter Francisco De Goya can be considered one of the most influential figures in Spanish art of the mid-18th and early 19th centuries. Goya was soon very successful, he became the court painter of the Spanish aristocracy and, after showing his mastery, he became painter to the king in 1786. Francisco De Goya became one of the keen observers of the tragedies of war, in 1792 he fell victim to a mysterious illness, which almost killed him, leaving him completely deaf. A mixture of violence occurring in Spain at this time and hearing loss disillusioned this once optimistic court painter and led him to create arguably his most famous paintings. These paintings, known as Goya's Black Paintings, were unlike any other art in Spain at that time. They showed the reality of war from an unfiltered perspective and were effectively able to convey Goya's disgust and disillusionment with Napoleon's invasion and general bloodshed in Spain during that time. In this essay I will describe aspects of Goya's personal life, the significance of his work, and Goya's reaction to the various problems that occurred in Spain at that time. Although more commonly referred to as Goya, Francisco Goya's full name was Francisco Jose de Goya y lucientes. Goya was born in the Spanish kingdom of Aragon and was a product of the mid-18th century to the early 19th century. Goya had a happy childhood and came from an upper-middle-class family. Goya and his parents both moved from Fuentetodos to Zaragoza, both cities in Aragon. Showing remarkable artistic ability at an early age, he began an apprenticeship under the painter Jose Luzan Martinez. An important aspect of Goya's education is that sp...... middle of paper ...... oya was only trying to depict humanity's darkest themes in the only way possible. Francisco Jose de Goya y lucientes is one of the most influential Spanish painters of all time. He is probably the most famous Spanish painter during the modernist movement, and his paintings and etchings are able to capture the spirit of this era in Spanish and European history. Not only will it document the positive aspects of Spanish culture in the late 18th and early 19th centuries, but it will also focus on the negative ones, producing some of the most socially provocative works of all time. It can truly be said that Goya is a figure shrouded in mystery, going from an optimistic court painter to one of the most important war documentarians of all time. You need to know more about Goya and his work to truly understand Spanish society during the modernist era.