Francisco Goya (1746-1828) was a Spanish romantic painter and is often considered a transitory figure in Western art history, marking a shift from the Old Masters to the moderns. His painting The Third of May 1808 (1814) is a key work to highlight this changing style and has been argued to be the first modern painting. It commemorates Spanish resistance against Napoleon’s armies during the Peninsular War. Set in a dusk-lit landscape and against a line of French troops with guns, the viewer’s eye is led to an illuminated Spaniard rebel wearing a stark white shirt, his hands raised and face anguished. Unlike the more popular style of the time that favored idealized triumphs of battle, Goya employed a realist perspective with layered, frantic brushstrokes to convey the harsh and ugly realities of war.

Learn more about the work that inspired this pin HERE.