La maja desnuda is a novel published in 1906 written by the Valencian writer Vicente Blasco Ibáñez.
The novel recounts the life of a humble son of a blacksmith who becomes a painter of famous talent and his adventures with the women of his life, which takes place in Rome, Paris and Madrid. The title of the novel alludes to the famous painting of the same title by Francisco de Goya, and the novel contains several scenes of the painter's periodic visits to the Museo del Prado.
The novel was very successful in its time and caused a certain scandal because it lent itself to recognizing characters of the Madrid of the time, where it was set in a substantial part. Blasco was a friend of the painters and sculptors Benlliure and also treated Joaquín Sorolla, although the main character of the novel has elements that can be associated with Blasco's own life.
It was translated into English with the title "Woman Triumphant".
Blasco himself, in the prologue of the English version, described its essence: Renovales, the famous painter protagonist of the novel, is "simply the personification of human desire, this poor desire that, in reality, does not know what When we finally get what we want, it does not seem enough to us. "More, I want more," we say.If we lose something that makes our life unbearable, we immediately want it again. indispensable for our happiness, we are like that: poor, deluded children who wept yesterday for what we despise today and wish for tomorrow, poor deceived beings circulating through life on the wings of the capricious icarians. "
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