The present drawing records the traditional setup for decoy hunting. Owls, either taxidermied or alive, were strategically positioned during daytime to attract hostile birds. The hunter would then shoot the descending birds or catch them with a net or snare—the maneuver the figure on the right is about to perform. Here, the hunters wait behind a bush as a flock of birds approaches the owl. Goya initially considered including a third man or arranging them differently, as the faint black chalk outline of a figure in the background reveals.
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Inscription: Numbered in brush and grey wash upper right '105', to the right of which in pen and dark ink '23.' [pertaining to Fortuny Album I, no. 23]
Javier Goya y Bayeu, (from 1828); Mariano Goya y Goicoechea (Spanish), (from 1854); Federico de Madrazo y Kuntz (Spanish), (from ca. 1855–1863); Mariano Fortuny y Madrazo, (by gift in 1894)
New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "Spain: Drawings, Prints and Photographs," April 18–July 16, 1989.
New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "Goya in The Metropolitan Museum of Art," September 12–December 31, 1995.
Museo Nacional del Prado. "Drawings by Goya," November 19, 2019–February 16, 2020.
New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "Goya’s Graphic Imagination," February 8–May 2, 2021.
Gassier and Wilson 1971, no.1517; Gassier 1973, no. 362
An Exhibition of the Work of Goya Exh. cat., Paris, Bibliothèque Nationale. Paris, 1935, Bibliothèque Nationale, Paris, Goya Exhibition, 1935, also Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1936, cat. no. 27, cat. no. 27.
Francisco Goya : his paintings, drawings and prints. Exh. cat.: MMA January 27 - March 8. The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, 1936, Metropolitan Museum of Art, An Exhibition of the Work of Goya, 1936, also Bibliothèque Nationale, Paris, 1935, cat. no. 27, cat. no. 27.
Harry B. Wehle "An Album of Goya's Drawings" in The Metropolitan Museum of Art Bulletin. vol. 31, New York, February 1936, Metropolitan Museum of Art Bulletin, Vol. XXXI, 1936 (Feb. ), pp. 23-28 (incl. bibliography), pp. 23–28.
Harry B. Wehle "Fifty Drawings by Francisco Goya." MMA Papers no. 7. New York, 1938, ill.
Goya: Drawings and Prints. Exh. cat. The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, 1955, Metropolitan Museum of Art catalogue supplement, no. 238., fig. no. 238.
Pierre Gassier, Juliet Wilson Bareau Goya His Life and Work. London, 1971, fig. no. 1517, part III, p. 295, ill.
Pierre Gassier Francisco Goya Drawings, The Complete Albums. New York, 1973, ill. plate F.105, p. 474, fig. no. 362, p. 496, ill.
A. Hyatt Mayor Goya: 67 Drawings. Exh. cat. The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, 1974, Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1974, no. 65, repr., fig. no. 65.
Colta Ives, Susan Alyson Stein Goya in the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Exh. cat., September 12 - December 31. The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, 1995, Baticle, Jeannine. Goya. Paris: Fayard, 1992.
Delteil, Loys. Le peinture graveur illustré. Vols. 14 and 15, Francisco Goya. Paris, 1922.
Gassier, Pierre. Francisco Goya, Drawings: The Complete Albums. Translated by James Emmons and Robert Allen.
Mark McDonald Goya's Graphic Imagination. New York, 2021, (entry by Francisco J.R. Chaparro), cat. no. 65, pp. 202–3.
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