New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1904-05-03
GOYA.
John OEuer Hobbies on the Famous
Spanish Painter.


Goya said of himself that he had three
tiers IN his literature, Nelasquez and Rem
brandt II nature he seemed TO find for the
most part. ugliHess, screams, eXasperatiOns
cruelty and warfare. As eminent French
critic has said of him: He can make you shud-
der. but he cannot make you weep; he in
terest you. but he cannot get your heart"
There Is something almost revolving in his very
ability 10 be able TO sketch-whether from mem
DRY or on the sCene-sonle Of his terrible i'm
IiessIons. He did not paint con amore; he was
never il love with his subject Even in his
famous portraits OF the Duchess of Alba there
Is cruelty il the unsparing cleverness with
which he has presented being who, feel
somehow. is fascinating on rather mean scale
The genius Of Goya was perfectly appropriate
TO the times in which he lived. He expressed
them and he expressed them with such power
that IN Spain to-day one still recognizes con-
slditly GOya faces Goya aultudes-the world,
IN fact which he represented-with amazing
brll4lancy and Quickness-in his oil paintings and
his water color sketches. l think every one will
agree with when 1 say that portraIture-
whether in epic or in drama, in repOSe, in
verse, or in canvas-is a way of seeing When we
go 10 gallery OF old or modern masters and we
nave any acquaintance with art do not require
10 be told by whom the portraits have been
tainted. We know Rembrandt and VelasqueZ
ana Il 1llaI, just as we recognize Watts,
Frank Hou or a Sargent of the present day.
In literature We know the difference between a
shakespeare. q Thackeray and q Dickens char
acter-a George Eliot character and a George
Meredith character. They are all true 10 the
truths OF psychology, but each master has his
own way Of seeing and conveying his impress
sions. Now. in the State Gallery Of Madrid one
may see Goya's portrait Of the family of Charles
~ he owed much TO that family. They IN
Culseu MN IN every way; they humored him;
they endured all his moods; they permitted him
in a court still famous for its rigid etiquette
astonishing freedoms. Wen, one may Imagine
many artistic treatments of that family; some
Of them might have been more hattering to the
human race; some might have been more dec
orative. from the point of view of those who are
admirers of the Italian school; but Goya's treat
ment Of the Spanish royal family. while it may
4 iSr . ma desc hear
less IS absolutely sincere.
When Ferdinand VII was restored to the
Spanish throne he allowed Goya to paint his
portrait Goya had been disloyal; he was still
- -, tenant 4lIlIOuS anu LeChieSS,
ferdInanQ said 10 him: You have deserved
exile and you deserve TO be hanged, but you
are such q great artist that we forget all the
The Bourbons made mistakes and they were
not all good rulers, but they always aris-
tocIats. Many Of them were weak, many were
foolish many were wicked; they never conde-
scended, however, TO vulgar resentment or NAL
Ice They did not resent Goya's satire; they
realized its sincerity; they recognized its truth
Ferdinand, who knew all that GOya knew Of the
politics, the society and the tendencies of the
period. must have felt that-at a time when
al the noblest instincts Of humanity were denied
and laughed Att unjust look for heroic
or even disinterested men. The note of the
age was the note or unsparlng, pltIess, remorse-
less egoism. The battle was to the strong the
victory, too, was TO the big hattalions. The
soul was ignored and the will IF man was Op-
posed absolutely 10 the VIII OF the unacknOWl-
edged Cod.
you are great artist" said the King. land
We forget all the rest This was not the tri-
umph Of personal charm or magnetsm-it was
the triumph of a man who, with all his faults.
could not be hattered by any amount Of success,
or money, or popularity into telling lies or
acting them. Here he Tesembled Dante. Here.
too. he resembed Voltaire. Here, too, he re-
sembled every man who ever made any mark on
his own or later generations. Let him be mis-
taken. let him be prejudiced, let him see too
much JOY, or too much gloom, or too much
sorrow, or too little hope, too little security,
so long as he doesn't lie. Had Goya lived in
England to-day he would certainly not have
shown us women Defng butchered i'm the streets
men being dreadfully tortured, prisoners
groaning in chains The horror is not that he
saw them but that there We're such sights TO
be seen. The final comment his labors may
be found in the one calm and consoling phrase
he ever published. 1t is written under a sketch
which represents four women sleeping, shut up
in a dark attic: do not wake them; sleep is
often the one good TO the sorrowful" The man
who wrote that was one who had paid the full
price for his knowledge. He must have gone
down into the depths and earned the right to
speak Of suffering I'm his own terms.
Goya's terms were not Dante's terms though
Dante dashed his own age with the keenest
invectiye ever uttered in literature Goya's
terms not the terms Of Titan. or OF Gains
borough, or Of Rembrandt, or Of Velasquez, or
Of Shakespeare. or Of Goethe, or of Balzac. or
OF Dsraen, or OF Thackeray, or Of George Mere
dith But he. as they, expresses the moods and
the spirit Of his own generation: he, wiser than
many men Of genius. never allowed himself 10
be tied down TO any one set. The whole world
was his country, and while he knew courts he
also knew farmyards, and while he could paint
queens, he could also paint drudges. This IS
why I call him a supreme master OF pOrtraiture
he has not given a few acquaintance. he
has given US a whole people; he has not given
a classic has given civilized Europe IN
the eighteenth century The gift may not be
comforting; some Of US may yearn for a few
touches Of false sentiment little balderdash
I'm fact. Balderdash, however has not vitality
If Goya had given balderdash should
never have heard OF him-and he still lives
not because he was witty, or clever, wild,
dashing, agreeable loved by a
duchess but because he truthful. He
painted the truth.