Muchachos trepando a un árbol

By 1791 Goya was a court painter, and one of his chores was designing tapestry cartoons, full-scale paintings that weavers at the royal factory would copy in wool to hang in the king's palaces. This one, meant to sit over a door in the palace at the Escorial, shows three boys clambering up a trunk, one crouched on all fours so a second can climb onto his back. It was cheerful, decorative work, and Goya was tired of it. This was his seventh and final series of cartoons. Within two years he fell gravely ill, lost his hearing for good, and the sunny country scenes gave way to the witches and nightmares he is better known for now. Here the mood is still light. The hardest thing in the picture is a boy trying not to fall.