Francisco de Goya

The Meadow of San Isidro (La pradera de San Isidro) (sketch)

The Meadow of San Isidro (La pradera de San Isidro) (sketch)
Datos Generales
Cronología
1788
Ubicación
The Prado National Museum. Madrid, Madrid, Spain
Dimensiones
41.9 x 90.8 cm
Técnica y soporte
Oil on canvas
Reconocimiento de la autoría de Goya
Documented work
Titular
El Prado National Museum
Ficha: realización/revisión
17 Dec 2009 / 14 Jun 2023
Inventario
(P00750)
Historia

The tapestry cartoon for which this sketch was made was never in fact painted. It formed part of the series that would have decorated the bedroom of the Infantas, a commission that Goya received towards the end of 1787 (see Blind Man's Buff).

The sketch was acquired from the artist by the Duke and Duchess of Osuna in 1798 and it remained in the cabinet that the Duchess had in La Alameda until it was sold at the time of the bankruptcy of the ducal household in 1896, when it was bought for the Prado Museum by the Spanish Ministry of Development, for the sum of 15,000 pesetas. It entered the museum's collection on 5 June 1896.

Análisis artístico

Intended to become a tapestry cartoon, this work never got any further than the oil sketch, thereby preventing the creation of what would without a doubt have been the largest canvas ever painted by the artist, as well as one of his greatest. Unfortunately, the death of Charles III in December 1788 interrupted the work on the décor of the palace of El Pardo, which the royal family stopped using shortly afterwards.

This painting has been highly praised. Arnaiz highlights the complexity of its composition, its rapid, fresh execution and its precise colouring. Camón Aznar says that not even the Venetians of the 18th century were able to create such a delicate overall effect.

On the skyline we can make out the silhouettes of the Segovia bridge, the church of San Francisco el Grande and the Alcázar Nuevo. This is a place very familiar to Goya thanks to the proximity of the Royal Palace and the home of the Duke and Duchess of Osuna. Years later, the artist's own home - the Quinta del Sordo - was also very close to this spot.

The way in which the canvas is composed recalls the work of other artists that Goya may have drawn inspiration from, such as View of Zaragoza, by Juan Bautista Martínez del Mazo; The Royal Couples by Luis Paret; certain vedute, or views, of Madrid painted by Antonio Joli; and the work of the French artist Claude-Joseph Vernet.

The subject matter of religious celebrations attracted the attention of politicians, intellectuals and other artists, as well as painters. In the sainete, or short comical play, of the same name by Ramón de la Cruz we find a magnificent literary parallelism to Goya's representation of the fiesta of San Isidro Labrador. In Ramón de la Cruz's work, the distinct social groups are played off against each other, whilst in that of Goya they appear to mingle amicably. The ilustrados with whom the artist was on very friendly terms were opposed to celebrations of this kind as they would often degenerate into quarrels in which the authorities were forced to intervene. However, the image that Goya offers us of this particular celebration is an idyllic one.

The sketch for The Meadow of San Isidro had given Goya quite a few problems. The artist wrote in a letter to his friend Martín Zapater that he had had to work hard on the difficult matter of the meadow on the saint's day, with all of the hustle and bustle that the work involved. In fact, the sketch presents a great variety of colour and countless figures, leading writers such as Mayer and Beruete to consider that this could not possibly be a sketch for a cartoon that would be transferred to a tapestry. However, if we take into account the dimensions specified by the carpenter Serrano for the stretcher that Goya would have used for the finished cartoon, 348 x 752 cm, there would have been enough space to fit in even all these tiny details. Furthermore, just as with the only cartoon in this series actually to be executed,Blind Man's Buff, Goya would have simplified the composition slightly to facilitate the work of the tapestry weavers.

Conservación

Restored in 1987. Conserved unlined and on the original stretcher

Exposiciones
  • Exposición y venta de los cuadros, esculturas, grabados y otros objetos artísticos de la Casa Duca
    Palacio de la Industria y de las Artes
    Madrid
    1896
    1896
  • Les chefs-d’œuvre du Musée du Prado
    Musée d’Art et d’Histoire
    Geneva
    1939
    consultant editors Fernando Álvarez de Sotomayor y Pedro Muguruza Otaño. From June to September 1939
  • El arte europeo en la corte de España durante el siglo XVIII
    Galerie des Beaux-Arts
    Burdeos
    1979
    Exhibitied also at Grand Palais, París y Museo Nacional del Prado, Madrid
  • Obras maestras de la pintura española de los siglos XVI al XIX
    Museo Pushkin
    Moscow
    1980
    Exhibited also at the State Hermitage Museum, San Petersburgo
  • Goya y el espíritu de la Ilustración
    Museo Nacional del Prado
    Madrid
    1988
    from October 6th to December 18th 1988. Exhibited also at Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, January 18th to March 26th 1989; The Metropolitan Museum of Art, Nueva York, May 9th to July 16th 1989, Madrid curator Manuela B. Mena Marqués, scientific directors Alfonso E. Pérez Sánchez and Eleanor A. Sayre
  • Madrid pintado. La imagen de Madrid a través de la pintura
    Museo Municipal de Madrid
    Madrid
    1992
  • Goya. El Capricho y la Invención. Cuadros de gabinete, bocetos y miniaturas
    Museo Nacional del Prado
    Madrid
    1993
    from November 18th 1993 to February 15th 1994. Exhibited also at the Royal Academy of Arts, London, March 18th to June 12th 1994 and The Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago, July 16th to October 16th 1994, consultant editors Manuela B. Mena Marqués and Juliet Wilson-Bareau
  • Goya. 250 Aniversario
    Museo Nacional del Prado
    Madrid
    1996
    consultant editor Juan J. Luna. From March 29th to June 2nd 1996
  • Goya en Madrid. Cartones para tapices 1775-1794
    Museo Nacional del Prado
    Madrid
    2014
  • Goya: Order and disorder
    Museum of Fine Arts
    Boston
    2014
Bibliografía
  • DESPARMET FITZ - GERALD, Xavier
    L'œuvre peint de Goya. 4 vols
    París
    1928-1950
    vol. I, p. 204, cat. 166
  • SAMBRICIO, Valentín de
    Tapices de Goya
    MadridPatrimonio Nacional
    1946
    pp. 155, 264, cat. 53 y láms. 166-169
  • GASSIER, Pierre y WILSON, Juliet
    Vie et ouvre de Francisco de Goya
    ParísOffice du livre
    1970
    pp. 66-67, 79, 98, cat. 272
  • GUDIOL RICART, José
    BarcelonaPolígrafa
    1970
    vol. I, p. 274, cat. 252
  • ANGELIS, Rita de
    L’opera pittorica completa di Goya
    MilanRizzoli
    1974
    103, cat. 231
  • CAMÓN AZNAR, José
    Francisco de Goya, 4 vols.
    ZaragozaCaja de Ahorros de Zaragoza, Aragón y Rioja
    1980-1982
    vol. II, p. 59 y p. 113 (il.)
  • ARNAIZ, José Manuel
    Francisco de Goya, cartones y tapices
    col. col. "Espasa Arte"
    Espasa Calpe
    1987
    pp. 154-155, 178, 182, 305, cat. 58B; p.
  • MENA, Manuela B. y WILSON-BAREAU, Juliet (comisarias)
    Goya. El capricho y la invención. Cuadros de gabinete, bocetos y miniaturas
    MadridMuseo del Prado
    1993
    pp. 172-174, 356, cat. 26 y pp. 176, 177
  • TOMLINSON, Janis A.
    Francisco de Goya. Los cartones para tapices y los comienzos de su carrera en la corte de Madrid
    col. col. "Ensayos de Arte Cátedra"
    MadridCátedra
    1987
    pp. 232-234 y p. 232 (il.)
  • LUNA, Juan J. (Comisario)
    Goya. 250 Aniversario
    MadridMuseo del Prado
    1996
    p. 328, cat. 49 y pp. 128-129 (ils.)
  • SANCHO, José Luis
    Salas del Palacio Real de El Pardo para las que se tejieron tapices sobre cartones de Francisco de Goya: identificación de las habitaciones y ajuste de las obras de Goya en los alzados de las paredes
    in HERRERO CARRETERO, Concha (curator, Tapices y cartones de Goya (catalogue of the exhibition organizated at the Palacio Real de Madrid, from may to june 1996)
    MadridPatrimonio Nacional, Goya 96, Lunwerg
    1996
    p. 173 (il.)
  • MENA MARQUÉS, Manuela B. y MAURER, Gudrun (comisarias)
    Goya en Madrid. Cartones para tapices 1775-1794
    MadridMuseo Nacional del Prado
    2014
    p. 133-135
  • ILCHMAN, Frederick y STEPANEK, Stephanie L. (comisarios)
    Goya: Order & Disorder
    BostonMuseum of Fine Arts Boston Publications
    2014
    pp. 320-324
Ficha en SAAC

Los Sistemas Aumentativos y Alternativos de Comunicación (SAAC) son formas de expresión distintas al lenguaje hablado, que tienen como objetivo aumentar (aumentativos) y/o compensar (alternativos) las dificultades de comunicación y lenguaje de muchas personas con discapacidad. Más info: Arasaac

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