Painter. He is considered by many as the most important Spanish artist of the late 18th and early 19th centuries. Born in a small village of Fuendetodos to a middle-class family, in the northeastern Spanish province of Aragon, his family moved to Zaragoza when Francisco was 4 years old and by age 14, was studying painting. In 1773 he married Josefa Bayeu, who was with the royal court. In 1775 Goya made 9 tapestries, for King Charles III. Many times, Goya attempted to be the court painter but was always rejected. On June 29, 1779 the court painter died and then after that Goya applied for the position but was again rejected. In July of 1780, Goya was elected to the Royal Academy of San Fernando, the most important Art Academy of Spain. He became the assistant director of painting in 1785. When the Church of San Francisco el Grande was built in 1781, the King of Spain chose Goya and seven others to decorate it. He was given the commission to paint the largest of the church's altar pieces. Being recognized for his talent, by September of 1783, Goya and his wife were residing with the royal family. As one of the close confidantes of the king, he was treated as a prince. With a decline in his health, Goya suffered from noises in his head, loss of balance, loss of vision, delirium, and paralysis, and in 1792, he became permanently deaf. From these symptoms, historians speculate that his paints resulted in lead poisoning. On October 31, 1799, Prime Minister Luis de Urquijo honored Goya with the highest position a Spanish artist could achieve, first court painter. In 1818 after having witnessed the excesses and the attempt to enforce an absolutist regime by Ferdinand VII, Goya left Spain, settling in Southern France in Bordeaux where he died. Originally interred at the Cimetière de la Chartreuse in Bordeaux, France, his remains were later repatriated to Spain in 1888 and resting in Royal Chapel of St. Anthony of La Florida in Madrid, which walls had been beautifully painted with his vivid fresco of the daily life in the city. For easy comparison of his work, his masterpiece paintings "Clothed Maja" and "Nude Maja" are being displayed side by side at the National Museum of Art in Madrid. In 1930, "Nude Maja" was an image on a Spanish postage stamp. Among his other noted paintings include "Sacrifice to Pan" in 1771, "The Parasol" in 1777, and "The Second of May 1808" and "The Third of May 1808" both in 1814. Since 1963, Norton Simon Museum in Pasadena, California has acquired a large collection of his work.