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Boy on a Ram

A young, smiling boy in a ruffled collar, hat, and cumberbun rides outdoors on a brown ram, a small whip held aloft in his hand.
CC0 Public Domain Designation

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  • A young, smiling boy in a ruffled collar, hat, and cumberbun rides outdoors on a brown ram, a small whip held aloft in his hand.

Date:

1786–87

Artist:

Francisco José de Goya y Lucientes (Spanish, 1746–1828)

About this artwork

As painter to the king of Spain, Francisco de Goya also designed tapestries for the royal residences. The artist made small oil sketches to work out the designs, followed by full-scale painted cartoons that served as guides for the weavers at the king’s tapestry works. This cartoon was produced for a tapestry in a series decorating the dining room in the Palace of El Pardo outside Madrid. The room’s large panels illustrate a traditional decorative subject, the four seasons, but Goya exercised his imagination in the smaller panels above the doors, producing scenes of children and animals like this one.

Status

On View, Gallery 217

Department

Painting and Sculpture of Europe

Artist

Francisco José de Goya y Lucientes

Title

Boy on a Ram

Place

Spain (Artist's nationality:)

Date  Dates are not always precisely known, but the Art Institute strives to present this information as consistently and legibly as possible. Dates may be represented as a range that spans decades, centuries, dynasties, or periods and may include qualifiers such as c. (circa) or BCE.

1786–1787

Medium

Oil on canvas

Dimensions

127.2 × 112.1 cm (50 1/16 × 44 1/8 in.); Framed: 153.7 × 138.4 × 12.7 cm (60 1/2 × 54 1/2 × 5 in.)

Credit Line

Gift of Mr. and Mrs. Brooks McCormick

Reference Number

1979.479

IIIF Manifest  The International Image Interoperability Framework (IIIF) represents a set of open standards that enables rich access to digital media from libraries, archives, museums, and other cultural institutions around the world.

Learn more.

https://api.artic.edu/api/v1/artworks/111559/manifest.json

Extended information about this artwork

Object information is a work in progress and may be updated as new research findings emerge. To help improve this record, please email . Information about image downloads and licensing is available here.

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