While evoking a formula used to represent the Holy Family’s Flight into Egypt, Goya departed from that familiar tale to present a love story. He crafts an intriguing scene of romantic courtship using a reduced visual vocabulary. The posture of the riders—which denies us a clear view of the woman—their attire, and their animated conversation suggest various interpretations. They might be a couple giving free rein to furtive affection; alternatively, the man may have abducted the woman from her parental home, an informal marriage procedure once common in rural Spain.
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Inscription: Numbered in brush and brown wash upper right: '36'; to the right of which in pen and dark ink: '21.' [pertaining to Fortuny Album I, no. 21]
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. "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.1461; Gassier 1973, no. F36 [306]
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.26, cat. no. cat. no. 26.
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. 26, cat. no. 26.
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.
Walter Mehring European Drawings from the Collections of The Metropolitan Museum of Art: A Portfolio of Collotype Reproductions [Vol. 1: Italian Drawings; Vol. 2: Flemish, Dutch, German, Spanish, French, and British drawings; Vol. 3: "New Series": Italian, Flemish, Dutch, German, Spanish, French, and British drawings]. The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 3 vols., New York, 1942–44, cat. no. 23 (vol.2), fig. no. 23, ill.
Goya: Drawings and Prints. Exh. cat. The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, 1955, Metropolitan Museum of Art catalogue supplement, no. 213.
Pierre Gassier, Juliet Wilson Bareau Goya His Life and Work. London, 1971, (ill. and Listed)., fig. no. 1461, part III, p. 293, ill.
Pierre Gassier Francisco Goya Drawings, The Complete Albums. New York, 1973, ill. plate F. 36, p. 418, fig. no. 306, p. 483.
A. Hyatt Mayor Goya: 67 Drawings. Exh. cat. The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, 1974, Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1974, no. 38, repr., fig. no. 38.
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. 54, pp. 180–81, ill.
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