Painting with Thirteen Sketches

genre

The thirteen sketches represented in the painting were made for tapestry cartoons. The general recovery of Spain in mid-eighteenth century, manifested on the one hand by the construction of the new royal palace in Madrid, the modernizing of other royal buildings, the organization of the Royal Tapestry Factory of Santa Bárbara, and on the other hand by the creation of the San Fernando academy of Fine Arts, favoured the spectacular emergence of a generation of painters who filled the second half of the eighteenth century. Foremost among these was Francisco Bayou, closely linked to Anton Raphael Mengs.

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About the Artist

Francisco Bayeu Y Subias

1734 – 1795

Spanish painter. He had an eminently successful career, becoming court painter to Charles IV and director of the Academy of San Fernando, but he is now remembered almost solely because he was the brother-in-law of Goya, who spent some time in Bayeu's studio in the 1760s and later painted a memorable portrait of him (Prado, Madrid, 1795). Bayeu painted portraits and also did much decorative work, particularly making cartoons for the royal tapestry factory, where he succeeded Mengs as director in 1777.

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