Francisco de Goya y Lucientes (1746-1828)

Disparate Pobre (Two heads are better than one), plate 11 from; Los Proverbios (D. 212; H. 258)

Details

Francisco de Goya y Lucientes (1746-1828)
Disparate Pobre (Two heads are better than one), plate 11 from; Los Proverbios (D. 212; H. 258)
etching with burnished aquatint, drypoint and engraving, circa 1812, on laid paper, without watermark, a fine impression, one of a small number printed before the first edition, circa 1854-63, with margins (slightly uneven), a very pale stain in the center of the lower margin, generally in good condition.
P. 9 7/16 x 13 7/8 in. (240 x 352 mm.), S. 11 x 11 3/16 in. (280 x 285 mm.)

Provenance

Sotheby Parke Bernet, New York, 15 February 1980, lot 940.

Lot Essay

The small number of posthumous proofs of the Proverbios are the only examples we have of Goya's completed work, before the wear (and possible re-biting?) which already appear in the first published edition of 1864. These 'trial proofs' are generally considerably more harmonious in effect than impressions from the first edition, with greater strength and clarity in the tonal scratched shading and aquatint and with none of the arbitrary contrast between the etched and tonal work that appears upon publication.

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