Goya was such an extraordinary painter, and I think: 'expressionist'. This is an unusual subject for him (or maybe not, but I haven't seen many portraits by him like this..) He painted this between 1800-1803. I think he was so ahead of his time, especially with the more descriptive war paintings he did, they were so freely painted, full of emotion, and the spaces to contain them. And then there's nothing like actually seeing his works in 'the flesh', at The Prado in Madrid. I haven't seen them for many years, but I still can clearly recall the impact they had on me. It was hard to look at anything else that day.
This Maya is so luscious and sexy too, and he achieves this between the spaces of paint strokes. He's was a great master, and still a huge inspiration.
Thank you for this clear analysis, rigorous and relevant.
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