Goya (Francisco de Goya y Lucientes) (1746 - 1828)

• His late period culminates with the Black Paintings of 1819–1823, applied on oil on the plaster walls of his house the Quinta del Sordo (House of the Deaf Man).
• Goya disillusioned by political and social developments in Spain, lived in near isolation.
• Goya eventually abandoned Spain in 1824 to retire to the French city of Bordeaux, accompanied by his much younger maid and companion, Leocadia Weiss, who may or may not have been his lover.
• There he completed his La Tauromaquia series and a number of other, major, canvases.
• Following a stroke which left him paralyzed on his right side, and suffering failing eyesight and poor access to painting materials, he died and was buried on 16 April 1828 aged 82.
• His body was later re-interred in the Real Ermita de San Antonio de la Florida in Madrid.
• Famously, the skull was missing, a detail the Spanish consul immediately communicated to his superiors in Madrid, who wired back, "Send Goya, with or without head."
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