Autorretrato no ateliê

Around 1790 Goya was doing well. He was a painter to the Spanish court, still a few years from the illness that would leave him deaf, and here he fixes a small trick of his trade. He stands at the easel against a flooded window, dressed for an evening's work, and the odd tall hat he wears has metal clips around its brim. Those held candles, so he could keep painting after the daylight was gone and judge the colours by flame. The face is turned toward us, lit hard from behind, the body left in shadow. It is a small thing, barely 40 centimetres tall, the kind of private picture a busy court painter made only for himself.