the lumberjacks

The Lumberjacks from 1780, in the Prado, is a tapestry cartoon depicting the physical labour of forestry workers, one of the various occupations Goya documented across his extensive cartoon series for the royal tapestry manufactory. The subject of men at work in the forest — cutting, hauling, and trimming timber — gave him the opportunity to study the dynamics of physical effort and the interaction of workers in an outdoor industrial setting. His ability to render the physical reality of demanding manual labour — the bent backs, the straining arms, the weight of the wood — with naturalistic precision gave these working-class subjects a dignity rarely accorded to them in the decorative arts. The lumberjacks, like the washerwomen and the wounded bricklayer from his other cartoons, represent the labour force that sustained the Spanish economy, observed and recorded with an attention that goes beyond decorative convention. The Prado's comprehensive cartoon collection includes this work in its original context of the full tapestry programme.

Goya renders the workers with characteristic attention to physical effort, using the bright palette of tapestry design while capturing the specific gestures and postures of men at work.