Prison Interior is an oil on canvas painting completed by the Spanish artist Francisco Goya

Francisco Goya

Francisco José de Goya y Lucientes was a Spanish romantic painter and printmaker regarded both as the last of the Old Masters and the first of the moderns. Goya was a court painter to the Spanish Crown, and through his works was both a commentator on and chronicler of his era...

 (1746–1828) between 1793-94. The painting is bathed in a dim, cold light which gives it look feeling of purgatory

Purgatory

Purgatory is the condition or process of purification or temporary punishment in which, it is believed, the souls of those who die in a state of grace are made ready for Heaven...

.

It is one of a number of works the artist made of scenes set in lunatic asylums, including Yard with Lunatics

Yard with Lunatics

Yard with Lunatics is a small oil-on-tinplate painting completed by the Spanish artist Francisco Goya between 1793 and 1794. Goya said that the painting was informed by scenes of institutions he witnessed as a youth in Zaragoza...

(1793–1794) and The Madhouse

The Madhouse

The Madhouse or Asylum is an oil-on-panel painting by Francisco de Goya. He produced it between 1812 and 1819...

(1812-1813). These works were painted at a time when mad-houses were 'holes in the social surface, small dumps into which the psychotic could be thrown without the smallest attempt to discover, classify, or treat the nature of their illness." Goya often feared for his own sanity, a fact which underscores these works with feelings of dread.