Goya

A wandering monk once paused on a sun‑lit road near Saragossa and saw a fifteen‑year‑old boy sketching on a wall with charcoal. Struck by the youngster’s natural ability, the monk arranged for the child to leave his humble farm and study under his guidance, setting the stage for an extraordinary artistic destiny. The narrative follows this gifted youth as he learns the fundamentals of drawing, earns the trust of his patrons, and begins to step into the world of professional painting.

Against a backdrop of a Spanish art scene that had fallen into decay, the young artist’s emergence signals a turning point. He quickly moves from modest lessons to the courts of princes and kings, his work breathing fresh vigor into a tradition once thought dead. Richly illustrated with colour plates of his early masterpieces, the book offers listeners a vivid portrait of how a peasant’s son reshaped the visual language of his nation.