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A rich, fine impression printed on laid paper. The medium grain aquatint is graded and is finer towards the right and bottom of the plate. The aquatint contrasts brilliantly with the highlights, particularly with that on the breast of the right hand figure. The extensive burnishing of the figure seated in the foreground is evident. A guide line behind the title is still visible.
With wide margins, in fine fresh condition.
Plate 47 from ‘Los Caprichos’, from the first edition of twelve, of 1799, the only edition printed during the artist’s lifetime.
Our sheet is one of 300 impressions of this edition.
‘Los Caprichos’, masterpiece of the graphic production of Goya, are animated by a caustic satire and dark examination of human weakness. Although these prints came to be admired even by the later 19th century, the suite was not an immediate commercial success. Many suites remained unsold for some time after 1799.
This series invites imaginative interpretation and, for its light humor, is far
from the seriousness of the ‘Los Desastres de la Guerra’.
Most of the engravings have been interpreted as a satirical caricatures directed against the Church, the Inquisition, the Government and the Royal Family.
Goya’s commentary: ‘That is quite right; they would be ungrateful pupils not to visit their professor to whom they owe everything they know in their diabolical science.’
A preparatory drawing for this print, in red chalk, is in the Prado Museum (no. 67)
