Asensio Julià

Asensio Julià i Alvarracín, nicknamed El Pescadoret, the Little Fisherman (c.1759/60, Valencia - 22 February or 25 October 1832, Madrid) was a Spanish painter and engraver who was closely associated with Francisco de Goya.

He was born in the seaside barrio of Cañamelar and was apparently the son of a fisherman, so he was given the nickname "El Pescadoret"; although this has been brought into question by later research.

[1] When he turned 19, he spent almost two years fighting the Barbary Pirates along the coast of North Africa until he had to return to Spain because an illness had left him deaf.

)[2] Little more is known of personal life at that time, except that, in 1790, he was living in his old neighborhood in Valencia, near the home of the Marqués de La Romana, to whom he had offered his services, and where Goya had come to recover from a spell of ill health.

In 1798, Goya received a major commission to create frescoes in the Royal Chapel of St. Anthony of La Florida, but his health continued to be unstable and he sometimes employed Julià as an assistant.