Original etching, aquatint and drypoint on paper from ‘Los Caprichos’.

From the fifth edition of 210, published between 1881-1886 by the Calcografia for the Real Academia.

Image size: 105 x 215 mm

Frame size: 335 x 410 mm

 Goya's commentary:

He has been sent out on an important errand and wants to go off half-anointed. Even among the witches, some are hare-brained, impetuous, mad cap, without a scrap of judgment. It’s the same the world over.

Los Caprichos:

The suite was first published in 1799 and Goya is thought to have sold only 27 copies before withdrawing it from circulation due to the Inquisition. Most of the remaining copies of the edition were later purchased by King Charles IV of Spain. The work was an enlightened, tour-de-force critique of 18th century Spain, and humanity in general. The informal style as well as the depiction of contemporary society found in the Caprichos, makes them and Goya himself, a precursor to the modernist movement almost a century later.

This artwork is framed.