Includes bibliographical references (pages 308-313) and index.

"From an early age Goya was anxious to preserve a record of his life, but few of his writings have survived and his most personal records appear in his letters. He corresponded regularly with the aristocracy and the monarchy, as well as with friends. Goya's surviving letters reveal a highly emotional man, prepared to state his feelings as passionately to the authorities of a cathedral as to a close friend. His letters make few concessions and are literary works in their own right. Uniquely individual, they signal a new attitude on the part of a fine artist towards his profession, his social position and his sources of inspiration. These writings look forward to the great artistic testaments of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries: Delacroix's diary, the letters of Van Gogh and Dali's Diary of a Genius." "From this new collection, in which many letters have been translated into English for the first time, Goya emerges as witty, passionate and unexpectedly vulnerable."--Jacket.

Translated from the Spanish.

SACFinal081324