Caprichos

Los Caprichos were published by Goya in 1799, just after he had been appointed First Court Painter. They were the first series of prints the artist conceived of as a complete work in themselves, to be sold as a set. Goya intended Los Caprichos to reach a wide audience and to serve as his wake-up call for a society plagued by repression, intolerance, dogmatism and ignorance.

Goya underscored the critical and satirical messages of the etchings with titles that are often deliberately vague and ambiguous. In his announcement of the sale of Los Caprichos in the 6 February, 1799 edition of the Diario de Madrid, Goya presents the work as “a collection of prints of whimsical affairs”, intended to condemn the mistakes and follies of civil society. However, to cover himself, he is at pains to note that none of the compositions is intended to ridicule any particular individual. Rather, he states, they depict mankind in general, combining caricatures and circumstances of his own invention. Despite these disclaimers, some of his contemporaries must have seen themselves in the prints; in 1803, quite possibly with an eye to gaining royal protection, Goya made a gift of the plates and remaining prints of Los Caprichos to King Charles IV, who put them in the Real Calcografía, where they remain today.

The issues dealt with in the prints run the gamut of human flaws and foibles, targeting religion, morality, love, marriage, seduction, abduction, rape, superstitions about witchcraft, the excesses of the Inquisition, vanity and charlatanism. Nothing escapes the relentless eye of the artist. Of the drawings he made for the series, only those which satisfied the artist were made into plates. Goya was a master of etching and aquatint, using the latter especially for intense dark backgrounds, from which emerge stunning whites of great purity and brightness.

The superb prints we offer belong to the rare 1868 third edition, which Tomás Harris described as very limited and especially well printed. This was the last edition printed using the plates in their original condition before being waxed. (See Tomás Harris, Goya: Lithographs and Engravings vol. II, Oxford, 1964, pp. 66).

The prints are 31cm x 23cm, with a 48cm x 38cm passe-partout.