LOT 17
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Francisco José de Goya y Lucientes Los Caprichos
作品估价：GBP 300,000 - 500,000
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图录号：
17
拍品名称：
Francisco José de Goya y Lucientes Los Caprichos
拍品描述：
Property from a Private Collection, Japan
Francisco José de Goya y Lucientes
Fuendetodos 1746–1828 Bordeaux
Los Caprichos
thecomplete set, comprising eighty etchings with burnished aquatint, drypoint and engraving, 1797–98,a very fine, early set before the scratch on plate 45, printed in warm sepia and brown inks of different shades, some in greyish brown, displaying striking contrasts and luminous highlights, the aquatint rich and even, the very delicate half-tones printing to full effect as is indicative of the earliest examples, several plates with touches of burr, published by the artist, Madrid 1799, on laid paper, disbound, each sheet mounted and framed, accompanied by the contemporary Spanish mottled calf binding with F.G. stamped on the cover and black borders around the edges, the title and artist’s name in gilt letters on red morocco label on the spine, with marbled end papers
each sheet (approx.): 307 x 195 mm.; 12⅛ x 7⅝ in.
binding (overall): 315 x 210 by 20 mm.; 12⅜ x 8¼ x ¾ in.
We are grateful to Juliet Wilson-Bareau and Pim Kievit for their assistance with the cataloguing of this set.
Private collection, Germany (‘Hoeller’);
Their sale (Le Livre Illustré et la Gravure dans la 2e moitié du XIXe siècle – Collection d’un amateur Allemand (Hoeller)),Amsterdam, R.W.P. de Vries, 20–21 March 1928, lot 413;
Gemeentemuseum, Den Haag (this stamp not reproduced by Lugt; see L. 1181a and 1181b), on the end paper at the front of the book;
With Antiquariaat Meyer Elte, N.V., The Hague, 1958;
Richard H. Zinser (L. 5581), his stamp on the end paper at the back of the book;
With Nicholas Stogdon, Oxfordshire, 1987;
With David Tunick, New York, 1987;
From whom acquired by the present owner, 1987.
L. Delteil, Le peintre graveur illustré (XIXe et XXe siècles)/Tome 14/Francisco Goya, Paris 1922, nos. 38–117 (other impressions illustrated);
T. Harris, Goya Engravings and Lithographs, Oxford 1964, vol. II, pp. 60–158, nos. 36–115 (other impressions illustrated).
If no other work was known to us, the 80 satirical plates of Los Caprichos alone would be enough to secure the artist’s reputation as a genius. Goya was a late developer—he was 53 when he published his graphic masterpiece in 1799. They appear to have come out of nowhere; Goya’s first modest output of primarily religious and reproductive etchings during the 1770s and 1780s gave no sign of the astonishing pictorial and technical invention displayed in Los Caprichos.
The turning point in Goya’s life and work was the near fatal illness that he suffered in 1792–3, possibly caused by a health hazard involved with the design of tapestry cartoons for the royal court, which was to leave him permanently deaf. Goya, who had been court painter to King Charles III since 1786, withdrew from court, where he returned a changed and embittered man, in 1793. The isolation caused by his illness and subsequent deafness brought out his unique and visionary genius that resonates so deeply with the modern viewer. Freed from having to paint the superficial aspects of the world around him—such as the frivolous tapestry designs showing scenes of court entertainment—he turned to imaginative subjects from 1793, producing a series of small cabinet paintings on tin, depicting the entertainments of the common people this time, such as bullfights and outdoor theatre. In Goya’s words:
'I set to work on a group of cabinet paintings in which I managed to include the kind of observation that is usually absent from commissioned works where there is no room for caprice or invention.’
Goya’s painting style transformed with his dramatic shift in subject matter from 1793. His painting became more savage, with broader brushstrokes and a darker palette—broken through with searing highlights—dramatizing the dark and grotesque practices of what came to be known as ‘Black Spain.’ These subjects culminated in monumental oil paintings, such as the Procession of the Flagellants of circa 1808–12, in the Museo de la Real Academia de San Fernando (fig. 1).
In 1797 Goya acquired 80 expensive copper plates, which he worked on intensively for a period of two years, from 1797 to 1799, making use of burnished aquatint, burin, etching and drypoint. The artist’s radical inventiveness in printmaking pushed the experimental trajectory of his art to new and astonishing heights. It is Goya’s use of aquatint to create graduated tonal values, from delicate greys to velvety blacks, burnishing the plate to create startling highlights - analogous to Rembrandt’s use of veils of ink and bare paper to achieve chiaroscuro - which is his supreme painterly achievement in Los Caprichos. Goya once said: “Colours do not exist in nature, there is only shade and light. Give me some charcoal and I will make your portrait.” The artist stands alone in his mastery of aquatint; and with the wide range of techniques across all of his graphic work, encompassing lithography as well as intaglio techniques, he stands up with the two greatest experimental printmakers, Rembrandt and Picasso.
On the 6 February 1799, the newspaper Diario de Madrid advertised Goya’s Los Caprichos, published by the artist for sale in a perfume and liqueur shop in Calle del Desengaño (aptly meaning the Street of Disillusion), No. 1 (where he was probably still living at the time):
'The author, convinced that the censure of human errors and vices can be as much the subject of painting as it is of oratory and poetry, has chosen for his work themes from the multitude of follies and wrong-doings which are common to all societies, of prejudices and lies countenanced by custom, ignorance or self-interest, which he has considered appropriate to submit to ridicule, in order to exercise his fantasy.'
The artist was certainly apprehensive about the reception of his satires, which expressed the ideas of his enlightened circle living within a reactionary and repressive society. We know this, as he had originally intended the title plate to be The Sleep of Reason produces Monsters (fig. 2) showing the artist himself suffering from the diabolic visions of his anguished mind, but he ended up burying it right in the middle of the set, as plate 43, while he substituted his self portrait, wearing a Bolivar Hat, as the title plate.
Goya had read a great deal about the French Revolution during his convalescence, along with the philosophy that had laid the ground for it. The prototype for The Sleep of Reason produces Monsters came from two engraved pictorial title pages of Jean-Jacques Rousseau’s Philosophie published in Paris in 1793. In the context of reactionary Spain and the ‘terrors’ of Revolutionary France, Goya had a justified fear that the source of his inspiration might lead him into trouble with political and clerical powers.1 After only 27 copies of the set had been bought, Los Caprichos did indeed come to the attention of the Inquisition. Goya was saved from the Inquisition and the political right by his admirer King Charles IV, who in 1803 demanded the remaining sets and the plates from Goya, which he claimed ‘he had expressly asked him to make’, providing a pension for Goya’s son in return.
While The Sleep of Reason produces Monsters represents the fantastical visions of Los Caprichos, his self portrait represents the satirical vein. The Caprichos are disturbingly ‘modern’ in the sense that there are no heroes and villains, no good versus evil; Goya is purposefully equivocal. In plate 23, depicting the passing of a sentence by the Spanish Inquisition against the offender for example, none of the parties seem to invite the artist’s sympathy —the cruel judge, the staring, gloating crowd, the prisoner dressed in the penitential ‘San Benito’ robes. While the artist extols the power of Reason, it is through the power of his imagination as well as caustic satire that he conveys the bestial ignorance and savagery of the times, perturbing the viewer with unconventional compositions and creating a universe of darkness through the technique of aquatint—in which illumination carries no message of divine redemption or human comfort.
The present, early printing compares very well with the set of proofs in the British Museum; it is only in these finest examples that the subtly nuanced planes of aquatint can be properly appreciated.Further, this disbound set provides a rare opportunity to display the set as a coherent whole—an entity with the wall power of a monumental Old Master or indeed Contemporary painting—rather than viewing the prints within a bound volume, one by one.
1 P. Hofer, Los Caprichos by Francisco Goya y Lucientes, New York 1969, p. 2.
Francisco José de Goya y Lucientes
Fuendetodos 1746–1828 Bordeaux
Los Caprichos
thecomplete set, comprising eighty etchings with burnished aquatint, drypoint and engraving, 1797–98,a very fine, early set before the scratch on plate 45, printed in warm sepia and brown inks of different shades, some in greyish brown, displaying striking contrasts and luminous highlights, the aquatint rich and even, the very delicate half-tones printing to full effect as is indicative of the earliest examples, several plates with touches of burr, published by the artist, Madrid 1799, on laid paper, disbound, each sheet mounted and framed, accompanied by the contemporary Spanish mottled calf binding with F.G. stamped on the cover and black borders around the edges, the title and artist’s name in gilt letters on red morocco label on the spine, with marbled end papers
each sheet (approx.): 307 x 195 mm.; 12⅛ x 7⅝ in.
binding (overall): 315 x 210 by 20 mm.; 12⅜ x 8¼ x ¾ in.
We are grateful to Juliet Wilson-Bareau and Pim Kievit for their assistance with the cataloguing of this set.
Private collection, Germany (‘Hoeller’);
Their sale (Le Livre Illustré et la Gravure dans la 2e moitié du XIXe siècle – Collection d’un amateur Allemand (Hoeller)),Amsterdam, R.W.P. de Vries, 20–21 March 1928, lot 413;
Gemeentemuseum, Den Haag (this stamp not reproduced by Lugt; see L. 1181a and 1181b), on the end paper at the front of the book;
With Antiquariaat Meyer Elte, N.V., The Hague, 1958;
Richard H. Zinser (L. 5581), his stamp on the end paper at the back of the book;
With Nicholas Stogdon, Oxfordshire, 1987;
With David Tunick, New York, 1987;
From whom acquired by the present owner, 1987.
L. Delteil, Le peintre graveur illustré (XIXe et XXe siècles)/Tome 14/Francisco Goya, Paris 1922, nos. 38–117 (other impressions illustrated);
T. Harris, Goya Engravings and Lithographs, Oxford 1964, vol. II, pp. 60–158, nos. 36–115 (other impressions illustrated).
If no other work was known to us, the 80 satirical plates of Los Caprichos alone would be enough to secure the artist’s reputation as a genius. Goya was a late developer—he was 53 when he published his graphic masterpiece in 1799. They appear to have come out of nowhere; Goya’s first modest output of primarily religious and reproductive etchings during the 1770s and 1780s gave no sign of the astonishing pictorial and technical invention displayed in Los Caprichos.
The turning point in Goya’s life and work was the near fatal illness that he suffered in 1792–3, possibly caused by a health hazard involved with the design of tapestry cartoons for the royal court, which was to leave him permanently deaf. Goya, who had been court painter to King Charles III since 1786, withdrew from court, where he returned a changed and embittered man, in 1793. The isolation caused by his illness and subsequent deafness brought out his unique and visionary genius that resonates so deeply with the modern viewer. Freed from having to paint the superficial aspects of the world around him—such as the frivolous tapestry designs showing scenes of court entertainment—he turned to imaginative subjects from 1793, producing a series of small cabinet paintings on tin, depicting the entertainments of the common people this time, such as bullfights and outdoor theatre. In Goya’s words:
'I set to work on a group of cabinet paintings in which I managed to include the kind of observation that is usually absent from commissioned works where there is no room for caprice or invention.’
Goya’s painting style transformed with his dramatic shift in subject matter from 1793. His painting became more savage, with broader brushstrokes and a darker palette—broken through with searing highlights—dramatizing the dark and grotesque practices of what came to be known as ‘Black Spain.’ These subjects culminated in monumental oil paintings, such as the Procession of the Flagellants of circa 1808–12, in the Museo de la Real Academia de San Fernando (fig. 1).
In 1797 Goya acquired 80 expensive copper plates, which he worked on intensively for a period of two years, from 1797 to 1799, making use of burnished aquatint, burin, etching and drypoint. The artist’s radical inventiveness in printmaking pushed the experimental trajectory of his art to new and astonishing heights. It is Goya’s use of aquatint to create graduated tonal values, from delicate greys to velvety blacks, burnishing the plate to create startling highlights - analogous to Rembrandt’s use of veils of ink and bare paper to achieve chiaroscuro - which is his supreme painterly achievement in Los Caprichos. Goya once said: “Colours do not exist in nature, there is only shade and light. Give me some charcoal and I will make your portrait.” The artist stands alone in his mastery of aquatint; and with the wide range of techniques across all of his graphic work, encompassing lithography as well as intaglio techniques, he stands up with the two greatest experimental printmakers, Rembrandt and Picasso.
On the 6 February 1799, the newspaper Diario de Madrid advertised Goya’s Los Caprichos, published by the artist for sale in a perfume and liqueur shop in Calle del Desengaño (aptly meaning the Street of Disillusion), No. 1 (where he was probably still living at the time):
'The author, convinced that the censure of human errors and vices can be as much the subject of painting as it is of oratory and poetry, has chosen for his work themes from the multitude of follies and wrong-doings which are common to all societies, of prejudices and lies countenanced by custom, ignorance or self-interest, which he has considered appropriate to submit to ridicule, in order to exercise his fantasy.'
The artist was certainly apprehensive about the reception of his satires, which expressed the ideas of his enlightened circle living within a reactionary and repressive society. We know this, as he had originally intended the title plate to be The Sleep of Reason produces Monsters (fig. 2) showing the artist himself suffering from the diabolic visions of his anguished mind, but he ended up burying it right in the middle of the set, as plate 43, while he substituted his self portrait, wearing a Bolivar Hat, as the title plate.
Goya had read a great deal about the French Revolution during his convalescence, along with the philosophy that had laid the ground for it. The prototype for The Sleep of Reason produces Monsters came from two engraved pictorial title pages of Jean-Jacques Rousseau’s Philosophie published in Paris in 1793. In the context of reactionary Spain and the ‘terrors’ of Revolutionary France, Goya had a justified fear that the source of his inspiration might lead him into trouble with political and clerical powers.1 After only 27 copies of the set had been bought, Los Caprichos did indeed come to the attention of the Inquisition. Goya was saved from the Inquisition and the political right by his admirer King Charles IV, who in 1803 demanded the remaining sets and the plates from Goya, which he claimed ‘he had expressly asked him to make’, providing a pension for Goya’s son in return.
While The Sleep of Reason produces Monsters represents the fantastical visions of Los Caprichos, his self portrait represents the satirical vein. The Caprichos are disturbingly ‘modern’ in the sense that there are no heroes and villains, no good versus evil; Goya is purposefully equivocal. In plate 23, depicting the passing of a sentence by the Spanish Inquisition against the offender for example, none of the parties seem to invite the artist’s sympathy —the cruel judge, the staring, gloating crowd, the prisoner dressed in the penitential ‘San Benito’ robes. While the artist extols the power of Reason, it is through the power of his imagination as well as caustic satire that he conveys the bestial ignorance and savagery of the times, perturbing the viewer with unconventional compositions and creating a universe of darkness through the technique of aquatint—in which illumination carries no message of divine redemption or human comfort.
The present, early printing compares very well with the set of proofs in the British Museum; it is only in these finest examples that the subtly nuanced planes of aquatint can be properly appreciated.Further, this disbound set provides a rare opportunity to display the set as a coherent whole—an entity with the wall power of a monumental Old Master or indeed Contemporary painting—rather than viewing the prints within a bound volume, one by one.
1 P. Hofer, Los Caprichos by Francisco Goya y Lucientes, New York 1969, p. 2.