‘For Goya, the normal, the terrible, and the fantastical existed cheek by jowl’

Tim Smith-Laing | Apollo | 1st February 2020

Amidst the Prado’s 200th birthday celebration, a landmark exhibition of hundreds of Goya’s drawings. Between war against the French and the sorry reign of Ferdinand VII, Goya was “able to find something cruel, stupid or both almost wherever he looked”.  And look he did, at length. Whatever the reason for his fascination with suffering, these expressive drawing have a cumulative effect that is “astonishing”.