Prison Interior

Prison Interior. 42.9cm x 31.7cm, Bowes Museum, Barnard Castle

Prison Interior (Spanish: Interior de cárcel) is an oil on canvas painting completed by the Spanish artist Francisco Goya (1746–1828) between 1793-94. The painting is bathed in a dim, cold light which gives it look feeling of purgatory.

It is one of a number of works the artist made of scenes set in lunatic asylums, including Yard with Lunatics (1793–1794) and The Madhouse (1812-1813).^[1] These works were painted at a time when mad-houses were 'holes in the social surface, small dumps into which the psychotic could be thrown without the smallest attempt to discover, classify, or treat the nature of their illness."^[2] Goya often feared for his own sanity, a fact which underscores these works with feelings of dread.

Notes

Bibliography

• Connell, Evan S. Francisco Goya: A Life. New York: Counterpoint, 2004. ISBN 1-58243-307-0
• Hughes, Robert. Goya. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 2004. ISBN 0-394-58028-1

Francisco Goya
List of works
Paintings	The rape of Europa (1772) Blind Guitarist (1778) Christ Crucified (1780) Maria Teresa de Borbon y Vallabriga (1783) Spring (or The Flower Girls) (1786–1787) The Swing (1787) St Francis Borja at the Deathbed of an Impenitent (1788) Manuel Osorio Manrique de Zúñiga (or Red Boy) (c. 1788) Self-portrait (c. 1790–1795) Little Giants (1791–1792) Portrait of Mariana Waldstein (c. 1792) Strolling Players (1793) Yard with Lunatics (1793–1794) Prison Interior (1793–1794) Marquesa de la Solana (c. 1794–1795) The Duchess of Alba and la Beata, 1795 The White Duchess, 1795 The Black Dutchess (1797) Self-Portrait with Eyeglasses (1797) Witches' Flight (1797–1798) The Spell (1797–1798) The Bewitched Man (1797–1798) The Witches' Kitchen (1797–1798) The Devil's Lamp (1797–1798) The Stone Guest (1797–1798) Witches' Sabbath (1798) Charles IV in his Hunting Clothes (1799) Countess of Chinchon (1800) Portrait of Manuel Godoy (1801) La maja desnuda Charles IV of Spain and His Family (1800–1801) La maja vestida Bartolomé Sureda y Miserol (c. 1803–1804) Portrait of Doña Isabel de Porcel (1804–1805) Portrait of Francisca Sabasa García (1804–1808) Doña Teresa Sureda (c. 1805) Majas on a Balcony (c. 1808–1812) The Colossus (c. 1808–1812) Time (c. 1810–1812) The Second of May 1808 (1814) The Third of May 1808 (1814) The Junta of the Philippines (1815) The Madhouse (1812–1819) The Inquisition Tribunal (1812–1819) The Burial of the Sardine (c. 1816) A Procession of Flagellants (c. 1816) The Forge (c. 1817) The Giant (1818) Self-portrait with Dr Arrieta (1820) Heads in a Landscape (1819–1823) The Milkmaid of Bordeaux (1825–1827) Tapestry cartoons The Parasol (c. 1777) The Grape Harvest (1786) Blind man's bluff (1789) Black Paintings (c. 1819–1823) Saturn Devouring His Son Judith and Holofernes Witches' Sabbath A Pilgrimage to San Isidro La Leocadia Two Old Men Men Reading Man Mocked by Two Women Fight with Cudgels Pilgrimage to the Fountain of San Isidro Atropos Asmodea Two Old Men Eating Soup The Dog
Etchings	Los Caprichos (1797–1798) The Sleep of Reason Produces Monsters (1797–1798) What a sacrifice! (1797–1798) They say yes and give their hand to the first comer (1797–1798) Que se la llevaron! (1797–1798) You who cannot (1797–1798) The Disasters of War (1810–1820) Contra el bien general (c. 1810) This is worse (c. 1812–1813) May the rope break! (c. 1815) La Tauromaquia (1815–1816) Unfortunate Events in the Front Seats of the Ring of Madrid, and the Death of the Mayor of Torrejón (1815–1816) Los Disparates (1815–1823) A way of flying
Related	Goya: A Life in Song (musical)