The Second of May 1808 in Madrid

A foreign soldier falls tumbling from his horse.

Townspeople leap upon him, plunging daggers into his flesh.

The entire canvas is consumed by blood and frenzy.

This painting depicts Madrid on May 2, 1808.

A historic day when the citizens rose up against the French occupying forces.

It captures the brutal, close-quarters combat at the Puerta del Sol.

So palpable was its sense of presence that a legend later took hold.

That the painter, Goya, had stood in the very midst of the battle.

That he had watched the clashes from the shadows or a window, sketching them on the spot.

Yet that was not the case.

This work was painted six years after the event.

In 1814.

Goya was safe inside his studio.

He gathered eyewitness accounts and prints, working out the composition from memory.

There was not a single sketch drawn from life on that day.

Why did he paint it only after six years had passed?

In 1808, Goya lived very close to the scene.

At Calle del Desengaño, No. 1, just a stone's throw from the fiercest fighting.

He had been completely deaf since a severe illness in 1792.

Even so.

The shudder of the cannons and the rumbling feet of the crowd must have shaken him to the core.

Yet he did not take up his brush immediately.

Under the French occupation, Goya remained in his post as court painter.

He had even accepted a medal from the pro-French regime.

Then came 1814.

The French troops withdrew, and Ferdinand VII returned from exile.

Absolute monarchy was restored.

Suddenly, Goya found his position precarious.

He lived with the dread of being purged as a collaborator.

In 1812, he had lost his wife, Josefa.

Financial hardship brought on by the war weighed upon him as well.

He stood to lose everything.