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After studying under Jose Luzan in Saragossa, he tried his fortunes in Madrid; at twenty, he had twice failed in the competitions of the Royal Academy of Fine Arts. In 1771 he was in Rome, from where he sent a picture to a contest at the Academy of Parma, without success. Back in Madrid in 1773, he married Josefa Bayeu, whose brothers, Francisco and Ramon, were also painters. In 1780-1781, he and the two Bayeus painted frescoes at the Cathedral of El Pilar, Saragossa; this led to a bitter quarrel over Goya's refusal to conform to the others' taste. A member of the Royal Academy of Fine Arts since 1780, he was made court painter in 1789.

Between 1775 and 1792 he painted many tapestry cartoons for the royal palaces (chiefly now in the Prado Museum). In these, as in other works of popular subjects, he brought new life to the waning rococo tradition. The rococo gracefulness, dependent on a pictorial sense of continuous smooth variation, pervades also the portraits from that period (Family of Duke of Osuna, 1790, Prado; Manuel Osorio, 1784, and Sebastian Martinez, 1792, Metropolitan Museum); in a few, he accentuates the majestic character of the sitter by means of a glaring light (Count of Floridablanca, 1783, Madrid, private collection). Even in such pictures as Christ on the Cross (1780, Prado), or Coach attacked by bandits (1787, Madrid, private collection), a pleasant rhythm prevails over the expression of anguish.

After 1792, he made use of streaked surfaces and sharper contrasts in lights and shadows (Duchess of Alba, 1797, Hispanic Society of America; socalled Maja pictures, 1797-1798, Prado; frescoes in San Antonio de la Florida, Madrid, 1798). The etching and aquatint series Caprichos, of 1799, won wide acclaim for him outside Spain: in a dreamlike setting which emphasizes the absurdity of manmade society, men and women are seen acting out their passions, changed into caricatures of themselves. From then on, Goya, for whom the human figure was a forthright expression of human values, often accentuated the traits which revealed his sitters' frailties or vices, even if they were royal persons (Family of Charles IV, 1800, and Ferdinand VII, 1814-1815, Prado); or when portraying people of fine spirit, endowed them with an aristocratic appearance (Isidoro Maiquez, 1807, and The Milk-maid, late work, Prado).

During the Peninsular War (1808-1814), prominent individuals from both the patriots' and the French side sat for Goya, First Painter to the King since 1799 (Palafox, Prado; Llorente, Sao Paolo Museum). Two etching and aquatint series dating from then show a historical approach to the depiction of human events. Tauromaquia (Bullfighting), dated 1816, illustrates the development of that sport. Fatal Consequences of the Bloody War Against Napoleon in Spain, and Other Emphatic Caprices, executed from 1810 to around 1820, was incorrectly titled Disasters of War when first published in 1863; it depicts the destruction of human life and sentiments (as do two large pictures of 1814 now at the Prado), and the barren world of the Holy Alliance, which destroyed the hopes of those throughout Europe who had fought against Napoleon in the name of freedom and liberty.

In 1824, after absolutism was re-established in Spain, Goya left for Bordeaux, where many of his friends were in exile. There, he went on painting, drawing, and making lithographs to the end of his life. Among those late works are vivid portraits, still-lifes in which the gracefulness of the vital form prevails over the reality of death, and a few compositions which reveal the anguish of religious belief (in various public and private collections). Always alive in his works, Goya has stimulated the creative aims of later painters, such as Eugene Delacroix and Edouard Manet to cite only two. Of his works, there are extant approximately 700 paintings and 800 drawings, plus 290 etchings and lithographs.