Francisco Goya, The Sleep of Reason Produces Monsters - 1799 by Atelier Liesjes

The man is sleeping and one monster after another appears in his nightmare in this black and white work of art.

In his works of art, the owls, bats and giant cats with big eyes swarm behind the sleeping figure, not only expressions of the artistic imagination. They are themselves comments on the social phenomena that are his real target. In front of the finely etched, homogeneous aquatint background, the freehand figures stand out clearly. Goya based his anecdotal images, consisting of a small number of figures, on observation from nature, and gave free rein to his personal expression.

Francisco José De Goya y Lucientes (Fuendetodos, Spain, March 30, 1746 - Bordeaux, France, April 16, 1828) was a Spanish painter and engraver. Goya had already gained some fame in the 1780s thanks to his membership of the Real Academia de Bellas Artes de San Fernando. In the summer of 1786, Charles III of Spain appointed him "painter to the king", the second position after the official court painter. After the death of Charles III in 1788, his successor Charles IV of Spain appointed him court painter in April 1789.

In addition to paintings of high clergymen, Goya also made etchings which he printed in large editions and which were traded in many cities, including outside Spain. Goya was strongly influenced by the Enlightenment. Francisco Goya's work belongs in style to Romanticism, but he was also influenced by Enlightenment thinking.