Goya - Los Caprichos - First Edition - Sample Pages

G OYA

LOS CAPRICHOS First Edition

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LE P SAM ES P AG

Phone 01572 821424 or buy online at goldmarkart.com prices include frame, vat and uk delivery Catalogue ÂŁ10

G OYA

LOS CAPRICHOS

G OYA

LOS CAPRICHOS First Edition [ befo re scr atc h ]

1799

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G OYA - L O S C A P R I C H O S We are delighted to be able to offer prints from the very rarest of first editions of one of the world’s greatest suites of etchings, Francisco de Goya’s Los Caprichos, comprising 80 aquatint etchings.

Not only is this a first edition, but one of the earliest pulls. (After the first 25 or so pulls were taken, a scratch appeared on plate 45, which is to be seen on the rest of the first, and all subsequent editions. The set shown here is before scratch.) Goya himself had a number of copies bound in mottled calf leather of which ours is one.

The suite was published in 1799 and Goya is thought to have sold only 27 copies before withdrawing it from circulation due to the Inquisition.

Most of the remaining copies of the edition were later purchased by King Charles IV of Spain. The work was an enlightened, tour-de-force critique of 18th century Spain, and humanity in general. The informal style, as well as the depiction of contemporary society found in the Caprichos, makes them and Goya himself, a precursor to the modernist movement almost a century later.

The subtlety of tone and lush quality of the aquatint printing in these etchings is unrivalled and will be exactly as Goya had intended. It is highly likely that Goya would have handled these very prints.

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F R A N C I S C O D E G OYA No other artist in black and white has ever exhibited such tremendous vitality, such seething indignation and wealth of invention as Goya. Born in Spain in 1746, he was well into his 30s before he began producing the work that was to set him aside from his contemporaries.

next to Rembrandt as one of the two greatest etchers of all time.

The creatures who haunt Goya's later works are inexpressively horrible.

The moral of it all is summed up in the central plate of the Caprichos in which we see Goya himself, his head on his arms, sprawled across his desk and fitfully sleeping, while the air above is peopled with the bats and owls of necromancy and just behind his chair lies an enormous witch's cat, malevolent as only Goya's cats can be, staring at the sleeper with baleful eyes. On the side of the desk are traced the words 'the dream of reason produces monsters'.

In all Goya made 268 etchings, 80 of which - Los Caprichos - are illustrated here. Completed in 1799, this provocative series analyses the human foibles and frailties of his fellows and directly influenced such artists as Delacroix and Manet with its power of draughtsmanship and inventiveness in composition. Goya's prints for this series have placed him

Text from an essay by Aldous Huxley

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GOYA

1. FRANCISCO GOYA Y LUCIENTES, PINTOR. 215 x 150 mm

etching, aquatint, drypoint and burin

LOS CAPRICHOS

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2. EL SI PRONUNCIAN Y LA MANO ALARGAN AL PRIMERO QUE LLEGA. They say yes and give their hand to the first comer.

215 x 150 mm

etching & burnished aquatint

Goya’s commentary: The readiness with which many women are inclined to get married, hoping thereby to be able to live in greater liberty.

LOS CAPRICHOS

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3. QUI VIENE EL COCO. Here comes the bogey-man.

215 x 150 mm

etching & burnished aquatint

Goya’s commentary: Lamentable abuse of early education. To cause a child to fear the bogey-man more than his father and so make it afraid of something that does not exist.

LOS CAPRICHOS

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4. EL DE LA ROLLONA. Nanny's boy.

205 x 150 mm

etching & burnished aquatint

Goya’s commentary: Negligence, tolerance and spoiling make children capricious, naughty, vain, greedy, lazy and insufferable. They grow up and yet remain childish. Thus is nanny's little boy.

LOS CAPRICHOS

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5. TAL PARA QUAL. Two of a kind.

200 x 150 mm

etching, aquatint & drypoint

Goya’s commentary: It is often disputed whether men are worse than women or the contrary, but the vices of the one and the other come from bad upbringing. Wherever the men are depraved, the women are the same. The young lady portrayed in this print is as knowing as the young coxcomb talking to her, and as regards the two old women, one is as vile as the other.

LOS CAPRICHOS

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6. NADIE SE CONOCE. Nobody knows himself.

215 x 150 mm

etching & burnished aquatint

Goya’s commentary: The world is a masquerade. Face, dress and voice, all are false. All wish to appear what they are not, all deceive and do not even know themselves.

LOS CAPRICHOS

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7. NI ASI LA DISTINGUE. Even thus he cannot make her out.

200 x 150 mm

etching, aquatint & drypoint

Goya’s commentary: How can he make her out? In order to know what she is, a monocle is not enough; judgment and experience of the world are needed and these are precisely what this poor gentleman is lacking.

LOS CAPRICHOS

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8. QUE SE LA LLEVARON! They carried her off!

215 x 150 mm

etching & aquatint

Goya’s commentary: The woman who cannot take care of herself belongs to the first who seizes her, and when the mischief is done, people are surprised that she has been carried off.

LOS CAPRICHOS

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LE P SAM ES P AG Y ON L Pages 24 -166 have been omited from this online sample.

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LOS CAPRICHOS

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The etchings are framed in a solid oak box-frame with 8mm conservationquality rag mount, acid free backing sheet and museum-quality UV glass.

Framed size is 43.5 x 36 cm.

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Uppingham, Rutland, LE15 9SQ 01572 821424

ISBN 978-1-909167-29-2 goldmarkart.com

November 2015

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