On-line gallery
- Reference number
- P00773
- Author
- Goya y Lucientes, Francisco de
- Title
- The Parasol
- Chronology
- 1777
- Technique
- Óleo
- Support
- Lienzo
- Measures
- 104 cm x 152 cm
- School
- Española
- Theme
- Paisaje
- On display
- No
- Procedence
- Royal Collection
This tapestry cartoon depicts a young woman. She is sitting, with a dog on her lap, and is accompanied by a Majo who protects her from the sun with a parasol.
This work's format and bottom-to-top perspective indicates that it was intended to hang over a window. It's pyramidal composition, with the figures in the foreground, reflects the influence of classical Italian painting on Goya, as well as his mastery at painting light and shadows.
The resultant tapestry was intended to hang in the dining room of the Prince and Princess of Asturias (the future Carlos IV and his wife Maria Luisa de Parma) at the Monastery of El Escorial. This work was part of a decorative series of ten cartoons for tapestries on “countryside” subjects. Goya, himself, invented the specific composition of the present one.
This work entered the Prado Museum Collection in 1870 by way of Madrid's Royal Palace.














