The drawing here captures the joy of outdoor activity. A smiling girl swings freely, while a man raises his hands and cries out—presumably encouraging her. It would not be surprising if Goya sought to imply sexual tension between the pair; other sheets from the album have similar overtones. The expression on the girl’s face suggests coyness or flirtation. There are undeniable sexual overtones in the drawing on the other side of the page (35.103.3). The smiling young maja (a fashionable, confident, and carefree young Spanish woman from the lower classes), eyes wide open, stands demurely in shadow, while a soldier cranes his neck before making his next move.
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Artwork Details
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Title:Girl on a swing, a man with his arms raised; folio 21 (recto) from the Madrid Album "B"
Artist:Goya (Francisco de Goya y Lucientes) (Spanish, Fuendetodos 1746–1828 Bordeaux)
Date:1795–97
Medium:Brush and point of brush, carbon black washes, on laid paper
Inscription: Numbered in brush and gray wash upper right: 21; above which upper right in pen and dark brown ink: 2 [pertaining to Fortuny Album, no.2].
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.
New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "Goya’s Graphic Imagination," February 8–May 2, 2021.
Gassier and Wilson 1971, no.391; Gassier 1973, no.B21 [36]
Valentin Carderera "Les dessins de Goya." in Gazette des Beaux-Arts. vol. 7, Paris, 1860, pp. 222–27.
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, fig. no. 20.
Harry B. Wehle "Fifty Drawings by Francisco Goya." MMA Papers no. 7. New York, 1938, fig. no. 3.
Robert Thomas Stoll Goya dessins. Paris, 1950s (?), fig. no. 3, p. 12.
José López-Rey Goya's Caprichos, Beauty, Reason, and Caricature. 2 vols., Princeton, 1953, fig. no. fig. 21 (vol. 2), vol. I, p. 30, ill.
Goya: Drawings and Prints. Exh. cat. The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, 1955, fig. no. 199.
Jacob Bean 100 European Drawings in the Metropolitan Museum of Art. New York: New York Graphic Society, 1964, cat. no. 93.
Eleanor Sayre "Eight Books of Drawings by Goya-I" in The Burlington Magazine. vol. 56, January 1964, fig. no. 16, p. 26.
Sir Kenneth Clark Masterpieces of Fifty Centuries. Exh. cat., November 14, 1970 - February 14, 1971. The Metropolitan Museum of Art, E. P. Dutton and Company, New York, 1970, fig. no. 330, p. 287.
Pierre Gassier, Juliet Wilson Bareau Goya His Life and Work. London, 1971, fig. no. 391, part 2, p. 173, ill.
Pierre Gassier Francisco Goya Drawings, The Complete Albums. New York, 1973, cat. no. 36, fig. no. plate B21, p. 63, p. 125.
A. Hyatt Mayor Goya: 67 Drawings. Exh. cat. The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, 1974, fig. no. 7.
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, fig. no. 6, p. 18, ill.
Juliet Wilson Bareau, Tom Lubbock Goya: Drawings From His Private Albums. Exh. cat., Hayward Gallery, London, February 22-May 13, 2001. London, 2001, cat. no. 11, p. 174, ill.
Mark McDonald Goya's Graphic Imagination. New York, 2021, (entry by Mark McDonald), cat. no. 11A, pp. 86–87, ill.
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