Autumn

1786

In 1786, Goya was commissioned to design tapestries to decorate the dining room in Madrid’s El Pardo palace. The king specifically requested “pleasant, light-hearted subjects,” and this painting, a sketch for one of the tapestries, was presented for his approval. A child reaches for a bunch of grapes that a young man in a stylish yellow suit offers to a lady dressed in black. Behind them, a servant balances a basket of grapes on her head—she personifies Autumn, the season of plentiful harvests.

Medium	oil on canvas
Dimensions	13 3/8 x 9 9/16 in. (34 x 24.3 cm) Frame: 16 1/4 x 12 1/4 in. (41.3 x 31.1 cm)
Object Number	1955.749
Acquisition	Acquired by Sterling and Francine Clark before 1955
Status	On View

Image Caption

Francisco de Goya y Lucientes, Autumn, 1786, oil on canvas. Clark Art Institute, 1955.749

Select Bibliography

Tomlinson , Janis A., ed. Goya: Images of Women. Exhibition catalogue. Washington, DC: National Gallery of Art in association with Yale University Press, 2002. Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute. Exhibit Four & Exhibit Seven. Exhibition catalogue. Williamstown, MA: Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute, 1958. Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute. Exhibit Four & Exhibit Seven, Supplement: West Gallery. Exhibition catalogue. Williamstown, MA: Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute, 1959. Meadows Museum, Southern Methodist University, Dallas. Goya and the Art of His Time. Dec. 7, 1982-Feb. 6, 1983. (Cat. by Edward J. Sullivan). Museo del Prado, Madrid.. Goya: Truth and Fantasy: The Small Paintings. Nov. 19, 1993-Feb. 15, 1994; Royal Academy of Arts, London, March 18-June 12, 1994; Art Institute of Chicago, July 16-Oct. 16, 1994. (Cat. by Juliet Wilson-Boreau and Manuela B. Mena Marques). Réunion des Musées Nationaux.. Goya: Un Regard Libre. Lille (France): Palais de Beaux-Arts. Dec. 11, 1998-March 14, 1999. Philadelphia Museum of Art, April 17-July 11, 1999. Cat. by Arnauld Brejon de Lavergnee. Watt, Alexander. "Notes from Paris". vol. 29. Apollo. Jan. 1939.. r. f. c.. "Nuovo opere alla Sterling & Francine Clark Art Institute.". vol. 81, no. 781.. Emporium.. Jan. 1960.:pp. 39-40.. Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute. List of Paintings in the Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute. Williamstown, MA: Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute, 1970. Gudiol, Josép. Goya, 1746-1848: Biography, Analytical Study and Catalogue of his Paintings. 4 vols. New York: Tudor Publishing Co., 1971. Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute. List of Paintings in the Sterling & Francine Clark Art Institute. Williamstown, MA: Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute, 1972. Rita de Angelis.. L'opera completa di Francisco Goya. Classici dell'Arte no. 74.. Milan: Rizzoli.. 1974.. Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute. List of Paintings in the Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute. Williamstown, MA: Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute, 1984. Edward J. Sullivan.. article on Goya.. Washington Opera Magazine.. Fall/Winter 1986.. Kern, Steven, ed. List of Paintings in the Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute. Williamstown, MA: Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute, 1992. Pierre Gassier and Juliet Wilson. Goya: His Life and Work, with Catalogue Raisonné. Eng., French, German editions.. London: Thames & Hudson.. 1971. Tinterow, Gary and Geneviève Lacambre. Manet/Valázquez: The French Taste for Spanish Painting. Exhibition catalogue. New York and New Haven: The Metropolitan Museum of Art in association with Yale University Press, 2003. Lees, Sarah, ed. Nineteenth-Century European Paintings at the Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute. Williamstown, MA: Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute; New Haven and London: distributed by Yale University Press, 2012.

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Provenance

The artist, sold to Alcántara, 1798; Pedro and María Josefa de Alcántara, 9th Duke and Duchess of Osuna, La Alameda, Madrid (from 1798); Baron Charles-Jean-Marie Alquier, Madrid and Versailles (probably by 1800; d. 1826); Baron [René?] Alquier, Nantes, by descent (from 1826); Alquier family, Nantes, by descent, sold to Knoedler, probably in 1939; [Knoedler, New York, sold to Clark, 1 Mar. 1939]; Robert Sterling Clark (1939–55); Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute, 1955.