Francisco GOYA y LUCIENTES (1746 - 1828) : Complete series 'Los Caprichos' [The Caprices] - 1797/98
Price: € 26 000
Complete and homogeneous set of 80 plates, in the 2nd edition (of 12), 1855, bound in a volume titled on the spine F. GOYA - CAPRICHOS.
Large 4to volume (320 x 240 mm), full black shagreen, ribbed spine, red top edge, gold tooling, marbled paper endpapers, 1 blank leaf, 80 plates, 1 blank leaf (19th century binding).
Etching, aquatint, burnisher, drypoint and engraving. Harris 36 to 115, 2nd edition (of 12).
The sheets of wove paper measure 305 to 315 mm x 205 to 210 mm. Very good overall condition, with some light foxing in certain margins. The sheets were probably trimmed slightly when they were bound, originally measuring approximately 320 x 220 mm. The original cardboard cover has not been preserved and has been replaced by the current binding.
Provenance: Comte Doria, most likely Armand-François-Paul des Friches Doria (1824-1896), French politician, patron of the arts, and art collector. Purchased by him from Victor Prouté, founder of the Prouté gallery, bookseller and print dealer, located at 96 rue de Rennes between 1883 and 1895, before moving to rue de Seine. Inscription on the reverse of the first blank page: Goya. Caprichos, album de 80 planches, édition de Madrid, 1864, in 4° maroq. noir, non rogné, tête rouge, acheté chez Victor Prouté, estampes et livres, 96 rue de Rennes à Paris, le 5 juillet 1893 ..... 60 francs. Cte Doria. [Goya. Caprichos, album of 80 plates, Madrid edition, 1864, in 4° black morocco, untrimmed, red head, purchased from Victor Prouté, prints and books, 96 rue de Rennes in Paris, on 5 July 1893 ..... 60 francs. Comte Doria].
The impressions correspond to the second edition of the Caprices, as described by Tomás Harris in his catalogue raisonné of Goya's prints. According to Harris's analysis of the earlier impressions of this edition, most of the impressions of our volume belong to the first printing of the second edition. The main indication is the absence of bevelled edges on the plate of Goya's self-portrait, plate 1 of the series. Harris indicates that these bevels were made at the top and bottom of the plate during the printing of the second edition.
The second clue is obviously the quality of the impressions. Goya's self-portrait is still very beautiful, the blacks on the hat are well preserved and the contrasts are intact. The famous plate The Sleep of Reason Produces Monsters is particularly beautiful, with the title still perfectly legible.
Drypoint burrs are still clearly visible on the bodice and right sleeve of the young woman in plate 31 and still slightly visible on the chest and right leg of the central figure in plate 33. These drypoint burrs, noted by Harris in the impressions for the second edition, quickly diminish thereafter.
Etched in 1797-98, the series of The Caprices was first published in 1799. Three hundred sets were printed, but only about sixty were sold. The remaining 240 sets and their plates were given by Goya to the Calcografía de la Imprenta Real in 1803 in exchange for an allowance granted to his son Javier. Tomás Harris dates the second edition to 1855, before the third, which bears the date 1868 on the title page.
“Goya's series has traditionally been divided into two parts. The first, in which social satire and caricature dominate, opens with a self-portrait of the artist as "an observer and a satirist". The second part, prominently featuring grotesque imagery and scenes of witchcraft, is set off by a depiction of the artist that suggests creativity's visionary nature”. (Mercedes Cerón Peña in Goya's graphic imagination, p. 98)
The Caprices series has been interpreted in various ways. It has mainly been seen as a caustic portrayal of the human condition and a social satire. Certain themes recur, such as female coquetry, male vanity and grotesque marriages, as do figures such as donkeys and winged monsters. The sometimes ambiguous titles given by Goya to his plates reinforce the evocative power of the images.
Mercedes Cerón Peña writes: “The Caprichos might also be an exploration of the tensions between observation and imagination, as the two sections frontispieces and the images frequent references to the senses suggest. A recent study of the works in the context of eighteenth-century epistemology underscores the point, noting that the Caprichos ambiguities produce a perceptual uncertainty” (Mercedes Cerón Peña in Goya's graphic imagination, p. 98)
The fame of the Caprices is also due to the diversity of techniques employed with virtuosity by Goya: aquatint, etching, drypoint, engraving and burnisher, combined in various ways throughout the series.
“Goya was one of the first Spanish artists to use aquatint, which had been invented in 1768 by the French etcher Jean-Baptiste Le Prince, and his carefully modulated handling of the technique was characteristically virtuosic.” (Mercedes Cerón Peña, in Goya's graphic imagination, p. 102). Goya explored this new technique, sometimes using it to create colour gradients over the etching, sometimes using it exclusively, as in plate 32, where the contours of the subject are achieved solely through changes in tone in the aquatint.
References: Tomás Harris: Goya: Engravings and lithographs, 1964; Janis A. Tomlinson: Graphic evolutions: the print series of Francisco Goya, 1989; Goya's graphic imagination, 2021.