Ruega por ella, Plate 31 from: Los Caprichos

Details

FRANCISCO DE GOYA Y LUCIENTES (1746-1828)
Ruega por ella, Plate 31 from: Los Caprichos
etching with burnished aquatint, drypoint and engraving, circa 1798-99, on laid paper, without watermark, a very good impression from the First Edition, published by the artist, Madrid, 1799, in an edition of approximately three hundreds, beginning to show some wear in the background, but with traces of burr on the young woman’s bodice and sleeve, with margins, stained
Plate 203 x 151 mm.
Sheet 282 x 206 mm.

Provenance

Sir Lawrence Gowing (1918-1991), London; then by descent in the family.

Literature

Delteil 68; Harris 66

Conditions of sale

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Stefano Franceschi Specialist

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Lot Essay

Prado manuscript: ‘And she does well to do so in order that God may accord her fortune and liberate her from the evil of both surgeons and policemen and also to make her as agile and lively as her mother who is in heaven.’

'The Prado text together with the printed title of this work would have the young lady praying for her mother ‘who is in heaven.’ The Ayala text of 1799-1803 would have the figure in the background to the right being the young lady's very much alive mother: ‘A mother, who has become procuress for her own daughter, prays that God give the daughter good fortune but will also keep her away from the dangers of surgeons and constables’. The procuress (or mother) holds a rosary and presumably is praying that God give her pupil ‘luck’…so that she may become as smart and successful as her own mother.'

Cited in: R. S. Johnson, Francisco Goya, Los Caprichos, R.S. Johnson Fine Art, Chicago, 1992, p. 88.

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