On-line gallery
- Reference number
- P00790
- Author
- Goya y Lucientes, Francisco de (Spanish)
- Title
- Boy with a Bird
- Chronology
- 1779-1780
- Technique
- Óleo
- Support
- Lienzo
- Measures
- 262 cm x 40 cm
- School
- Española
- Theme
- Género y sociedad
- On display
- Yes
- Procedence
- Entregado a la Real Fábrica de Tapices de Santa Bárbara, Madrid, el 24 de enero de 1780. Transferido entre 1856-1857 al Palacio Real de Madrid (sótanos del oficio de tapicería). Ingresó en el Prado por RR.OO. de 18.1 y 9.2. de 1870.
A young boy plays with a goldfinch he holds in his hands. The slender tree next to him helps to give the impression of verticality with which Goya constructs this everyday composition.
This cartoon was for one of the tapestries now in the Monastery of El Escorial. Its extremely vertical format shows that it, along with Boy and a Tree, was intended for a narrow area beside a door, or on a pier between windows.
