Ya van desplumados (There They Go Plucked)

in or before 1799

Francisco Goya

Associated Names
Francisco Goya

Artist, Spanish, 1746 - 1828

This is a print depicting a group of women and fantastical animals. The four women stand together on the right, all looking towards the left. Two of them are young, with dark hair and long dresses, while the other two are old, their faces deeply wrinkled and cloth covering their heads. The two young women hold long brooms, and they seem to be sweeping away three creatures near the bottom left corner of the print. These creatures look like featherless birds, but they have the heads of men. One of the birds stands on the edge of a doorway or window on the left, through which bright light pours in. Near the top right corner, above the four women, a bird-like creature flies, its head obscured by feathers and its wings outstretched. The background is gray, aside from the bright doorway.

Media Options

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Artwork overview

  • Medium

    etching, burnished aquatint and drypoint on laid paper [proof before letters]

  • Credit Line

    Rosenwald Collection

  • Dimensions

    plate: 21.6 × 15.2 cm (8 1/2 × 6 in.)
    sheet: 26.3 × 20 cm (10 3/8 × 7 7/8 in.)

  • Accession Number

    1953.6.70

  • Catalogue Raisonné

    Harris 1964, no. 55, State I(2) (working proof)

  • Series Title

    Los Caprichos (plate 20)

Artwork history & notes

Provenance

Mariano Ballester (1916-1981), Paris and Murcia (Lugt 1860b). Lessing J. Rosenwald [1891-1979], Jenkintown, PA; gift to NGA, 1953.

Associated Names

Exhibition History

1965

  • Master Prints from the Rosenwald Collection, Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, Richmond, 1965, no. 93.

2018

  • Sense of Humor: Caricature, Satire, and the Comical in Prints and Drawings from Leonardo to the Present, National Gallery of Art, Washington, 2018 - 2019.

Bibliography

1964

  • Harris, Tomás. Goya: engravings and lithographs. 2 vols. Oxford: Bruno Cassirer, 1964.

Inscriptions

recto: at upper right in graphite in later hand: 20; verso: none

Markings

Mariano Ballester (Lugt 1860b) and National Gallery of Art

Watermarks

none

Wikidata ID

Q65223790

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