Majas on a Balcony

This painting is similar to Manet’s The Balcony, but if you look carefully, you’ll see that Goya’s work is darker, both literally and figuratively. What seems to be a peaceful painting of two women is actually distressing and the covered faces of the men behind them are quite scary. Majas were young, pretty women of the upper class; in other Goya paintings, they were generally understood to be prostitutes.