Boys playing soldiers

Boys Playing Soldiers from 1778, in the Prado, is one of Goya's tapestry cartoons for the royal apartments depicting children's games and popular amusements. The subject of boys imitating military life — drilling, parading, playing at war — was a common genre subject that Goya treated without the overt moral commentary he might have brought to it later in his career. By 1778 he was well established in his tapestry commission work and his naturalistic depiction of children at play had become one of his most admired qualities. The military theme is treated as innocent childhood imitation without irony or criticism; the darker view of warfare that would eventually produce the Disasters of War prints lay two decades in the future. His ability to capture the unselfconscious physical energy of children at play — their postures unstudied, their engagement complete — gives this cartoon a freshness that distinguishes it from the more formalised children's subjects of Italian and French academic tradition.

The outdoor composition groups the children in animated poses with bright, decorative colors suited to the tapestry medium. Goya's naturalistic rendering of children's expressions and body language demonstrates his early observational gifts within the decorative format.