Winter Scene

Two groups of working travelers, one hauling a slaughtered pig, converge on an icy road through a snowstorm, barren trees bending under diagonal brushstrokes of driven snow. Francisco José de Goya y Lucientes painted this small study about 1786 as one of a series of oil sketches for the monumental tapestry cartoons of the four seasons commissioned for the dining room of the Prince of Asturias at the royal palace of El Pardo; the image was scaled up to life size by the weavers of Spain’s Royal Tapestry Factory. The sketch was sold by Goya himself to the Duke and Duchess of Osuna and descended through their family before entering the Art Institute as a bequest in 1990. The painting is held in the Art Institute of Chicago.