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Francisco Jose de Goya y Lucientes
1746 - 1828
Children bird nesting.
Canvas: 12 x 16 7/8 in (30.5 x 43 cm)
Provenance:
Acquired by Sir William Stirling Maxwell in Seville in 1842
By descent with the Stirling Maxwells at Pollok House, Glasgow Acquired by a Swiss Private Collector in 1956
By descent to Private Collection, Switzerland.
Exhibited:
Manchester, Art Treasures, 1857.(Two of four, No’s 869-872).
London, New Gallery, 1895-96.
London, Grafton Galleries, Exhibition of Spanish Old Masters, 1913-14. No. 142 & 150.
Edinburgh, National Gallery of Scotland, 1922.
London, Burlington Fine Arts Club, 1928. No. 20 & 22.
Edinburgh, Arts Council, Spanish Painting, 1951.
Literature:
V. de Sambricio, Tapices de Goya, Madrid, 1946 (Bibl. 154. p.173).
J. Gudiol, Goya ......Catalogue of his paintings, Barcelona, 1971, p. 64 - 65, as executed between 1781-85.
Rita de Angelis, L’Opera pittorica completa di Goya, Milan, 1974, No’s 128 and 135, illustrated.
Pierre Gassier / Juliet Wilson, edited by François Lachenal, Goya, catalogue raisonné,1994, p 90, no. 156 & 157, illustrated, as dateable to circa 1777-85.
This painting comes from a series depicting groups of children playing, arguing and up to mischief on the hills on the edge of Madrid. The series were painted in pairs and this painting has a pendent, ‘Children searching for chestnuts’ which remains in a Swiss private collection. The children range in age from babies to about six years old. There are about twelve children in each painting and they are beautifully observed whilst they amuse themselves. In this painting they are involved in an acrobatic performance supporting each other to reach a birds nest high up in a ruined building whilst a child waits below with a hat to catch the eggs. Goya has clearly made the studies from life as the poses and expressions of the children are cleverly captured. Various buildings in the city below can be made out in the background.
Four paintings from the series were purchased by Sir William Stirling Maxwell in Seville in 1842, only fourteen years after Goya’s death. Two still remain in Pollok House, Glasgow, Scotland which along with its famous collection of paintings was given to the City of Glasgow in 1967 by Mrs Anne Maxwell Macdonald, daughter of the late Sir John Stirling Maxwell, 10th Baronet K.T.
The Maxwell family has been associated with Pollok for over 700 years. Originally Saxon they were driven north by the Romans. The Central block of the current house was built by the famous Scottish architects, the Adam family 1747-52. The Pollok House collection, along with the Bowes Museum , is the most representative collection of Spanish painting in Great Britain, including the two El Greco’s from the collection of King Louis Philippe of France.
The collection was gathered together by Sir William Stirling Maxwell in the first half of the nineteenth century. Sir William’s foresight and artistic judgement made him a pioneer collector of the works of Goya. By 1848 he wrote his famous ‘Annals of the Artists of Spain’, which was the first important book on the subject to be published outside Spain and remained a standard work for many years.
As a consequence of remaining in this famous collection for over a century, ‘Children looking for birds nests’ is in remarkably good condition and retains its original vibrancy and colour. The viewer can see that Goya was quite clearly very fond of children and delighted in painting them. Goya’s first child was born in Madrid in 1775 and he had an affection for the playful antics of the younger generation. All his life, Goya was interested in children and he often observed their youthful activities and toys. His best pictures of children come from the first part of his career.
Sambricio suggests that the set were sketches for tapestry cartoons whilst Rita de Angelis acknowledges this possibility but also adds that Goya might have been painting them as a commercially attractive set. Gudiol suggests a date of 1781-85 whilst Gassier/Wilson believe 1777-85 is the right date and point out that they are similar in style to the ‘Rina’ cartoon of 1778 and are the first example of a series of smaller paintings on a theme in Goya’s oeuvre. There arre a set of replicas in the Foundation Santa Marca in Madrid and a few other replicas spread aound Spain. All the paintings in this set reveal Goya’s delight in children playing and they demonstrate his acute powers of observation.
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J.Guidol in his 1971 publication, Goya, observed,
‘To this period must also belong a series of pictures representing children at play in the suburbs of Madrid, which are characterised by a satirical intention and also by a splendid sense of colour.’..................... ‘The composition is in most cases planned as a pyramid, either symmetrically or asymmetrically arranged. The play of light and shade is not so much used for dramatic effect as for technical reasons, to give a unity of figure and background.
The small figures are amusing - almost caricatured at times - and at the same time there is a seriousness and pathos in their interpretation. The colour is highly original, often having the effect of transforming the whole meaning of a scene and creating an atmosphere of great beauty.
These small works, which develop the ideas of the tapestry cartoons, demonstrate Goya’s complete sureness both in the original conception and in its realisation...........’
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