Knife Grinder 1812

Francisco de Goya painted this oil on canvas, titled Knife Grinder, at an unknown date. It shows a man bent over his work. He's sharpening a blade using a large grinding wheel. The dark background and his worn clothing tell us about the difficult conditions for the working class in Spain, around the late 18th or early 19th century. We are made to consider a time of social and political change, where the old systems were being questioned. Was Goya trying to make us think about the lives of ordinary people? About the kind of labor needed to keep society running? These are the questions that social art historians ask. To fully understand this artwork, we would research the economic conditions of Spain at the time, read accounts of daily life, and study the history of labor.