Francisco Goya y Lucientes, Pintor

FRANCISCO GOYA Y LUCIENTES
Fuendetodos 1746 – 1828 Bordeaux

Francisco Goya y Lucientes, Pintor, (1^st edition), 1799
Francisco Goya y Lucientes, Painter

Etching, aquatint, drypoint and burin on laid paper
215 x 150 mm.: 8 1/ 2 x 5 7/8 in.

References:
Los Caprichos, Plate 1
Delteil 38
Harris 36

Notes:

The Caprichos opens with this Goya Self-Portrait.  The portrait shows Goya, about 51 years old, in apparently not the best of humor and with a rather satirical appearance (see: Sayre in Goya and the Spirit of Enlightenment, p. 84).  The Biblioteca Nacional text describes this work as: “His true self-portrait, in bad humor and with a satirical appearance” (“Verdadero retrato suyo, de mal humor, y gesto satirico”).  For Sayre, Goya’s look appears to be one of contempt (The “mépris”, perhaps of Le Brun’s 1698 book on facial expressions still valid one hundred years later).  There is a drawing by Goya, which is a direct study for this work (The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, bequest of Walter C. Baker, 1971).  The print follows a cut-down version of the drawing quite closely except that the more protruding lower lip gives the artist’s face an even more contemptuous aspect than that of the drawing.  Finally, it should be noted that the original choice of the frontispiece for Los Caprichos was Los Caprichos Plate 43, showing the artist asleep at his worktable and with the title of: “The Sleep of Reason Produces Monsters”.  There are numerous possible explanations given for this change in the frontispiece.  Originally the whole subject of Los Caprichos was to have been “Dreams” which would have made the Plate 43 a logical frontispiece.  In presenting himself in the form of a rather grim self-portrait, Goya would appear to wish to move the subject of Los Caprichos from vague “dreams” to a more personal presentation of “reality”.

Bellos consejos

FRANCISCO GOYA Y LUCIENTES
Fuendetodos 1746 – 1828 Bordeaux

Bellos Consejos, (1^st edition), 1799
Wonderful Advice

Etching, burnished aquatint and burin on laid paper
215 x 150 mm.; 8 1/2 x 5 7/8 inches

References:
Los Caprichos, Plate 15
Delteil 52
Harris 50 III.1

Notes:

Goya here certainly is representing the character of Celestine as the prostitute’s intermediary.  The text in Madrid’s Biblioteca Nacional adds pessimistically to the Prado text “mothers are often the intermediaries for their own daughters…” (Las Madres suelen ser alcahuetas de sus mismas hijas…).

No hubo remedio

FRANCISCO GOYA Y LUCIENTES
Fuendetodos 1746 – 1828 Bordeaux

No hubo remedio, (1^st edition), 1799
Nothing could be done

Etching and burnished aquatint on laid paper
215 x 150 mm; 8 1/2 x 5 7/8 inches

References:
Los Caprichos, Plate 24
Delteil 61
Harris 59 III.1

Notes:

This etching could be classified as still another attack on the legal system (or lack of same) of the Inquisition.  The Ayala text is even more direct: “Leather-bound: she is poor and ugly.  How could she be helped?”  The “leather-bound” may refer to “in legal books”.  This also could signify that, with the unfair system of justice by giving money or with more beauty (and thus with the possibility of giving herself away) a “solution” to the lady’s problems could have been found.  Finally, it is to be noted that Jovellanos, in his brief period as Minister of Justice and Religion, attempted to diminish the power of the Inquisition.  In this effort, Jovellanos was unsuccessful and, as Goya’s title suggests: “Nothing could be done” (“No hubo remedio”).

Hasta la muerte

FRANCISCO GOYA Y LUCIENTES
Fuendetodos 1746 – 1828 Bordeaux

Hasta la muerte, (1^st edition), 1799
Until Death

Etching, burnished aquatint and drypoint on laid paper
215 x 150 mm.; 8 1/2 x 5 7/8 inches

References:
Los Caprichos, Plate 55
Delteil 92
Harris 90 III.1

Notes:

The Ayala text of 1799-1803 calls the subject of this plate “The Old Duchess of Osuna” (“La Duquesa vieja de Osuna”).  The Madrid Biblioteca Nacional text echoes this idea: “Foolish women will remain so until their death.  This is certainly the Duchess (of Osuna)…” (“Las mugeres locas lo serán hasta la muerte.  Esta es cierta Duquesa (la de Osuna)…” These two texts are rather surprising in view of what are known to have been the friendly relations between Goya and the Osunas at the time of the Caprichos.  The other suggested subject of this plate has been the Queen María-Luisa.  She, however, was only forty-eight years old in 1799.  On the other hand, in Goya’s original preparatory drawing for this print, (see: Lopez-Rey, Goya’s Caprichos, Vol. II, fig. 198) the woman before the mirror seems younger then in the print.  In any case, the general subject here is the age-old tradition of the allegory of Vanity.  This could have been a direct reference to the eventual effect of fading beauty and the coquettish ways of the Queen in her relationship with her young lover, the “Prince of Peace”, Manuel Godoy.

Origin of the harpoons or banderillas

FRANCISCO GOYA Y LUCIENTES
Fuendetodos 1746 – 1828 Bordeaux

Origen de los arpones o banderillas, 1^st edition, 1816
Origin of the harpoons or banderillas

Etching, burnished aquatint and burin
245 x 350 mm.; 9 3/4 x 14 inches

References:
La Tauromaquia, Plate 7
Delteil 230
Harris 210

Notes:

1. In La Tauromaquia of 1816, Goya presented a series of etchings on the art of bullfighting.  Here the bull and the bullfighter find themselves locked in mortal combat.  The spectators have disappeared in the distance.  We the onlookers are not a part of that distant blur; we are not one of the spectators.  On the contrary, we tend to find ourselves drawn into the center of the ring in direct confrontation with a bull that frequently ignores his attackers in order to stare at us directly in the eye.  In spite of the thousands of onlookers, man and bull often find themselves desperately alone and helpless in their respective human and animalistic limitations
2. Goya, in La Tauromaquia, succeeded in creating some of the most tensely charged images in the repertory of graphic art.  In these scenes, the brighter the sun (just as the brighter the footlights for Degas’s dancers and Toulouse-Lautrec’s singers), the more strongly felt is the all-surrounding darkness and the more limited and fragmented the scene becomes.  It is simply a matter of time, luck and relative degrees of force, effort, determination and cunning before we or the bull, or both of us, will be forced out of this exciting scene and into that surrounding nothingness.

Banderillas with Firecrackers

FRANCISCO GOYA Y LUCIENTES
Fuendetodos 1746 – 1828 Bordeaux

Banderillas de fuego, 1^st Edition, 1816
Banderillas with Firecrackers

Etching, burnished aquatint and drypoint
245 x 350 mm.; 9 3/4 x 14 inches

References:
La Tauromaquia, Plate 31
Delteil 254
Harris 234

Bullfight in a Divided Ring

FRANCISCO GOYA Y LUCIENTES
Fuendetodos 1746 – 1828 Bordeaux

Bullfight in a Divided Ring, 1825
Lithographic crayon and scraper
300 x 415 mm.; 12 x 16 inches

References:
Delteil 289
Harris 286 III

Note:

1. A very good impression with particularly rich inking.  Tiny tears on the outside edge of the sheet, well beyond the image.  Published by Gaulon in Bordeaux in 1825 together with three other Goya bullfight lithographs.  There are no known proofs before the edition of 1825.
2. The four Bulls of Bordeaux, all printed in Gaulon’s lithographic studios, today remain as monumental achievements in the history of lithography, an art that just had been invented about one quarter of a century before the publication of these works.
3. The Bulls of Bordeaux lithographs had a crucial influence on the following history of lithography and particularly on Manet and then on Pablo Picasso.  In order to relate Picasso’s works to the history of lithography as a whole, it is essential to understand the similarity of methods and approaches that align him with Francisco Goya.  Both of these Spanish artists loved the works of Velasquez and both also found special inspiration in the etchings, drawings and paintings of Rembrandt.  Goya, Manet and Picasso shared a fascination with every form of printmaking and an interest in experimenting endlessly with all the technical possibilities and problems involved.  In their lithographs, these printmakers combined aesthetic and technical mastery with extraordinary capacities for inventiveness.  Goya, Manet and Picasso had a common perception of the lithographic stone as an entity to be obsessively attacked and re-attacked, worked and re-worked until every possible iota of expression has been wrenched from its stony surface.