Winter Scene

c. 1786

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

Two groups of working-class travelers, one with a slaughtered pig in tow, converge on an icy road during a snowstorm. Francisco de Goya captured the scene’s wintry atmosphere with barren trees, large swaths of cool grays and whites, and diagonal brushstrokes that convey rapid snowfall. This small painting is one of a series of studies Goya created for monumental tapestries depicting the four seasons, commissioned for a dining hall at the Royal Palace of El Pardo in Spain. The image would have been scaled up to life-size and then manufactured by weavers in Spain’s Royal Tapestry Factory.

Status: On View, Gallery 219
Department: Painting and Sculpture of Europe

Artist: Francisco José de Goya y Lucientes
Title: Winter Scene
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.: 1780–1790
Medium: Oil on canvas
Dimensions: 34.3 × 35.6 cm (13 1/2 × 14 in.); Framed: 49.6 × 50.8 × 7.7 cm (19 1/2 × 20 × 3 in.)
Credit Line: Bequest of Verde C. Graff
Reference Number: 1990.558
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/93450/manifest.json

Charles Yriarte, Goya. Sa biographie, les fresques, les toiles, les tapisseries, les eaux-fortes et le catalogue des l’oeuvre, Paris, 1867, pp. 85, 141, 143.
Cipriano Muñoz y Manzano, Conde de la Viñaza, Goya, su tiempo, su vida, sus obras, Madrid, 1887, pp. 282-3, no. 38.
Valerian von Loga, Francisco de Goya, Berlin, 1903, p. 185, no. 93.
A.de Beruete y Moret, Goya. Composiiciones y figures, vol. 2, Madrid, 1917, pp. 51, 164, no. 102.
August L. Mayer, Francisco de Goya, Munich, 1923, p. 181, no. 98.
Daniel Catton Rich, “I Always Go Straight to the Goyas,” Magazine of Art 34 (1941), p. 62, ill.
Valentin de Sambricio, Tapices de Goya, Madrid, 1946, pp. 253-4, CXXVII-CXXVIII, under no. 192.
Pierre Gassier and Juliet Wilson, The Life and Complete Work of Francisco Goya with a Catalogue Raisonné of the paintings drawings and engravings, New York, 1971, pp. 79, 97, 383-4, no. 259, ill.
José Gudiol, Goya, 1746-1828, Biography, Analytical Study and Catalogue of his Paintings, Barcelona, 1971, pp, 69, 73, 257, no. 220, fig. 316.
Art Institute of Chicago, Annual Report, 1990-91, Chicago, 1991, p11, fig. 6.
Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, Goya: Order and Disorder, October 12, 2014-January 19, 2015, cat. 129 (ill.).

Chicago, Art Institute of Chicago, The Art of Goya, January 30-March 2, 1941, no. 12.
Toledo, Ohio, Toledo Museum of Art, Spanish Painting, March 16-April 27, 1941.
New York, Wildenstein, A Loan Exhibition of Goya for the Benefit of the Institute of Fine Arts, New York, University, November 9-December 16, 1950, no. 4.
New York, E. and A. Silberman Galleries, An Exhibition of Paintings for the Benefit of the Research Fund of the Art and Archaeology, The Spanish Institute, Inc., October 12-November 1, 1955,no. 22.
The Hague, Royal Gallery of Paintings, Mauritshuis, Goya, July 4-13 September, 1970, no, 8.
Madrid, Museo del Prado, Goya: Truth and Fantasy. The Small Paintings, November 15, 1994-February 27, 1994, cat. 22; London, Royal Academy of Arts, March 18-June 12, 1994; Art Institute of Chicago, July 16-October 16, 1994.
Museo Lazaro Galdiano, Madrid November 1994, exchange loan
Lille, Palais des Beaux-Arts, Goya. Un regard libre, December 12, 1998-March 14, 1999, cat. 14; Philadelphia Museum of Art, April 17-July 11, 1999.
Copenhagen, Statens Museum for Kunst, Goya: Image and Reality, February 11-May 7, 2000.
Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, Goya: Order and Disorder, October 12, 2014-January 19, 2015, cat. 129 (ill.).

One of six oil sketches as preparations for cartoons for tapestries that were to decorate the dining room of the Prince of Asturias in the royal palace of El Pardo near Madrid, 1786; the set of sketches sold by Goya to the Duke and Duchess of Osuna, La Alameda, 1798/1799 [for documentation relating to this sale, see Gassier-Wilson 1970, pp. 383-4]; by descent, the dukes of Osuna, sold Madrid, M. Tello, May 11, 1896, no. 74 to Dr. Cerbera, Madrid. Desparmet Fitz-Gerald, Paris, about 1910 [according to Juliet Wilson Bareau in Madrid/London/Chicago 1993/94]. Demotte, Paris and New York [letter of December 9, 1957 from Abris Silberman to Hans Huth in curatorial file states that Silberman acquired the painting “directly from the Demott [sic] Estate,” presumably referring to the stock of this gallery after the death of Lucien Demotte in 1934]; E. and A. Silberman Galleries, New York, by 1941 [lent to Chicago, 1941]; sold to Everett D. Graff (died 1964), Winnetka, 1942 [letter of April 23, 1942 to Silberman, copy in curatorial file]; his widow, Verde C. Graff (died 1989), Winnetka; bequeathed to the Art Institute, 1990.

Gassier and Wilson GW 259

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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.

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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.

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