Francisco de Goya

Original Prints: Etchings

Francisco de Goya y Lucientes (1746 - 1826) was one of the most important and innovative artists of his time, linking the Old Masters and the Moderns.*  He was also progressively split between an earlier courtly commitment (beginning in 1786 as painter to the Crown during the Bourbon Reforms) and, subsequent to the upheaval of the French Revolution (and the patriotic Peninsular War of 1807-1814), a darker brooding vision of the resulting monstrous and horrific aspects of human nature.

He was skilfully able to translate his art into the various graphic media, with almost three hundred prints to his credit; his mastery of etching and rich aquatint wash, which dramatically heightened any of his compositions, show howhe often sought to turn technique to advantage through bold experimentation.

Si es Delinquente Que Muera Presto [If He Is Guilty, Let Him Die Quickly] Delteil 33.2 (with a different title, Le Prisonnier Torturé, de Profil), Harris 28.II (of III) etching and aquatint, circa 1810-1820, the 2nd state (of 3), according to Harris, the 3rd state (without any real modifications, aside from the marginal clamp mark, upper left) corresponding to the posthumous edition Goya produced a series of three prisoner etchings in order to denounce the barbarous carceral conditions of the brutal Napoleonic occupation.  The present impression is a rare trial proof (one other impression known of this state), pulled before the posthumous (and sole) edition published by the Calcografía in 1859.

Disparate Claro [Clear Folly] Delteil 216.2 (of 3), Harris 262.II (of III) with the original Proverbios title of Sin Recomendarse a Dios ni Al Diablo [Without commending himself either to God or the Devil] etching and aquatint, circa 1815-1819, the 2nd state (of 3), a very fine impression, with full margins, from the first edition _________________________ * The third state (without any real modifications, aside from the added number in the upper right corner) corresponds to the successive later editions by the Calcografia, Madrid              next artist  >

*  As Pierre Gassier (Vie et Oeuvre de Francisco Goya, Paris, 1970:16) phrased it,

"Goya serait une sorte de colosse bifrons jettant d'un côté un regard nostalgique sur le XVIIIe siècle finissant, et de l'autre contemplant d'un oeil prophétique les voies nouvelles qu'il vient ouvrir à l'art moderne."

[Goya would be something of a bifrons Colossus looking back with a nostalgic eye over the culminating 18th century, and, with the other, prophetically contemplating the new directions that he was opening to modern art.]