Children with a Cart

Artist Francisco de Goya (Spanish, 1746-1828)

Place of OriginSpain

Date1778

DimensionsPainting: 57 1/4 × 37 in. (145.4 × 94 cm)
Frame: 70 1/2 × 48 1/2 × 6 in. (179.1 × 123.2 × 15.2 cm)

MediumOil on canvas

ClassificationPaintings

Credit LinePurchased with funds from the Libbey Endowment, Gift of Edward Drummond Libbey

Object number

1959.14

On View

Toledo Museum of Art (2445 Monroe Street), Gallery, 31

Label TextAn enormously inventive painter and printmaker, Goya was commissioned early in his career to paint more than 60 large-scale designs for tapestries to be woven at the Royal Tapestry Factory of Santa Bárbara near Madrid. This painting is one of a series of 20 “cartoons,” or models, Goya created for tapestries to decorate the private quarters of the Prince and Princess of Asturias (the future King Carlos IV and Queen María Luisa of Spain). The Children with a Cart tapestry was intended for display above a doorway in the bedchamber of the Pardo Palace outside Madrid and was paired with a similar subject, Children Playing Soldiers. As patterns for weavers making the tapestries, Goya’s cartoons were initially regarded as mere means to an end. Originally they were of so little consequence, in fact, that they were rolled up and stored after the tapestries were complete. They were rediscovered in 1870, nearly 100 years after their creation. The tapestry woven after Children with a Cart still survives in Pardo Palace.Published ReferencesCruzada Villaamil, D.G., Los tapices de Goya, Madrid, 1870, pp. 27-28, no. XVII.

Vinaza, C. de la, Goya, su tiempo, su vida, sus obras, Madrid, 1887, no. 17.

Araujo Sanchez, Z., Goya, Madrid, 1896, no. 17.

Lafond, P., Goya, Paris, 1902, p. 145, no. 17.

Loga, V. von, Francisco de Goya, Berlin, 1903, nos. 589, 592.

Calvert, A.F., Goya, London, 1908, p. 173, no. 17.

Beruete y Moret, A. de, Goya, composiciones y figuras, Madrid, 1917, II, p. 14, no. 17, p. 163, no. 70.

Mayer, A.L., Francisco de Goya, Munich, 1923, p. 50, no. 17, p. 218, nos. 713, 716 (same cartoon; incorrectly as in Prado Museum).

Mayer, A.L., Francisco de Goya, London, 1924, pp. 29, 40, 184 no. 716.

Exposicion de pinturas de Goya, Museo del Prado, Madrid, 1928, p. 99.

Sambricio, V. de, Tapices de Goya, Madrid, 1946, pp. 108, 111-112, 227-228, nos. 26, 296, n. 25, XXXIX-XXX, CLXXVI.

Desparment Fitz-Gerald, X., L'oeuvre peint de Goya, Paris, 1928-1950, I, p. 76, no. 17.

Sanchez Cantón, F.J., Vida y obras de Goya, Madrid, 1951, p. 166.

Art News, vol. 58, no. 4, May 1959, pp. 5, 37, repr. (col.) on p. 5 and on cover.

The Connoisseur, vol. 144, 1959, repr. p. 138.

"Accessions of American and Canadian Museums, April-June 1959," The Art Quarterly, vol. 22, 1959, p. 277, repr. p. 280.

Pantheon, vol. 18, 1960, repr. p. xiv.

"Aportaciones recientes a la Historia del Arte Espanol," Archivo Espanol de Arte, no. 130-131, 1960, no. 125, repr. pl. viii.

Rogers, Millard F., "La pintura espanola en el Museo de Toledo (Ohio)," Goya, no. 49, July-August 1962, p. 28, repr. p. 29.

Rogers, Millard F., "Spanish Art," Toledo Museum of Art Museum News, vol. 10, no. 2, Summer 1967, repr. p. 44.

Gudiol, J., Goya, New York, 1971, I, pp. 40, 43, no. 80, II, figs. 148-149.

Gassier, P., and J. Wilson, Goya, His Life and Work, London, 1971, pp. 76, 89, no. I. 129, repr.

Angelis, R. de, L'opera pittorica completa di Goya, Milan, 1974, no. 86, repr.

Toledo Museum of Art, The Toledo Museum of Art, European Paintings, Toledo, 1976, pp. 66, 69, pl. 60.

The Toledo Museum of Art: a Guide to the Collections, Toledo, 1976, repr. p. 49.

Morse, John D., Old Master Paintings in North America, New York, 1979, p. 144, repr. p. 145.

Salas, Xavier de, Goya, London, 1978, no. 73, p. 173, repr.

Ravin, James G., "Art and Medicine: Goya," Bulletin, The Academy of Medicine of Toledo and Lucas County, vol. 72, no. 1, Jan-Feb. 1980, p. 25, repr.

Sullivan, Edward J., Goya and the Art of His Time, Dallas, Meadows Museum, 1982, no. I, 1, p. 43, repr.

Tomlinson, Janis A., Francisco Goya: the Tapestry Cartoons and Early Career at the Court of Madrid, Cambridge, Eng., 1989, p. 68, 87, 88, fig. 52. (as Children in a Carriage).

Glendinning, Nigel, "Exhibition review: Goya at 250," Apollo, vol. 144, no. 415, Sept. 1996, p. 74.

Morales y Marin, José Luis, Goya: catalogo de la pintura, Zaragoza, 1994, p. 151, no. 80, repr.

Luna, Juan, Goya: 250 aniversario, Madrid, Prado, 1996, no. 23, pp. 303-304, repr. p. 97 (col.).

Kasl, Ronda, Painting in Spain in the Age of Enlightenment: Goya and his Contemporaries, Indianapolis Museum of Art, 1996, no. 32, pp. 213-214, repr. p. 96 (col.) and p. 213.

Previews, Indianapolis Museum of Art, Fall, 1996, repr. (col.) on cover.

Goya: un regard libre, Paris, Éditions de la Réunion des musées nationaux, 1998-1999, no. 3,repr. (col.) p. 122. (In English edition: p. 15-16, 17, repr. p. 18 (col.).

Gerard-Powell, Véronique, "Goya: un regard libre," L'Estampille/L'Object d'Art, no. 331, Jan. 1999, pp. 22, 24, repr. (col.) p. 23.

Ravin, James G. and Tracy B. Ravin, "What Ailed Goya?" Survey of Ophthalmology, vol. 44, no. 2, Sept. - Oct. 1999, p. 163, fig. 1 (col.), p. 164.

Gimenez, Carmen, ed., Spanish Painting from El Greco to Picasso: Time, Truth, and History, New York, Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, 2006, pp. 272, 274, repr. (col.). p. 273.

Marmor, Michael F., and James G. Ravin, The Artist's Eyes: Vision and the History of Art, New York, Abrams, 2009, fig. 34.1, p. 184.

Mena Marques, Manuela B. and Gudrun Maurer, Goya en Madrid: Cartones para Tapices, 1775-1704, Madrid, Museo Nacional del Prado, 2014, p. 210, repr. (col.) p. 211.

Wilson-Bareau, Juliet, Goya: In the Norton Simon Museum, New Haven, Yale University Press, 2016, p. 35, repr. (col) fig. 40.

Exhibition HistoryDallas, Meadows Museum, Goya and the Art of His Time, Dec. 7, 1982-Feb. 6, 1983, no. I.

Madrid, Prado, Goya: 250 aniversario, Mar. 30-Jun. 6, 1996, no. 23.

Indianapolis Museum of Art; New York, Spanish Institute, Painting in Spain in the Age of Enlightenment: Goya and his Contemporaries, 1996-1997, no. 32.

Lille, Palais des Beaux-Arts; Philadelphia Museum of Art, Goya: un regard libre, 1998-1999, no. 3.

New York, Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, Spanish Painting from El Greco to Picasso: Time, Truth, and History, 2006-2007.