Friar Pedro Offers Shoes to El Maragato and Prepares to Push Aside His Gun

Francisco José de Goya y Lucientes · c. 1806

Medium

Oil on panel

Original size

29.2 × 38.5 cm (11 1/2 × 15 3/4 in.); Framed: 41.6 × 51.2 × 6.4 cm (16 3/8 × 20 1/8 × 2 1/2 in.)

Currently held

Art Institute of Chicago

Movement

Neoclassicism

This small but electrifying panel belongs to one of the most unusual series Goya ever painted — six rapidly executed scenes depicting the real-life capture of the notorious bandit El Maragato by a Franciscan friar in 1806. Goya rendered the six panels with remarkable speed and economy, using loose, confident brushwork that conveys urgency without sacrificing clarity. In this scene, the friar's quiet authority is palpable — he extends the shoes almost as a feint, already beginning the decisive move that will disarm the outlaw. The warm ochres and muted shadows characteristic of Goya's panel paintings give the composition an intimate, almost anecdotal quality, far removed from the grand history paintings of his official career. The incident was widely celebrated in the Spanish press at the time, and Goya's near-contemporaneous response to it suggests a genuine fascination with the episode's almost theatrical reversal of power — a man of God besting a feared criminal through nerve rather than force. Our hand-painted oil reproduction faithfully replicates Goya's loose, gestural handling and the warm tonal palette of the original panel, giving you a piece that communicates the same charged stillness that has made this series compelling for more than two centuries.