A number of Goya’s drawings are "conversation pieces" showing men and women of different ages informally interacting. The theme compares to those of popular comedies of the period revolving around sentimental conflicts. This drawing brilliantly demonstrates Goya’s elegant technique, seamlessly blending layers of wash from different inks. Rapid and loose brushwork defines the overall room, while more precise lines render some of its details. The execution of the lattice window that lights the room and the adjacent curtain that obscures it epitomizes the artistic economy with which Goya could evoke a dense space and a dark mood.
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Title:A woman kneeling before an old man; page 55 from the "Images of Spain" Album (F)
Series/Portfolio:Images of Spain Album
Artist:Goya (Francisco de Goya y Lucientes) (Spanish, Fuendetodos 1746–1828 Bordeaux)
Date:ca. 1812–20
Medium:Brush and point of brush, brown ink and gray chalk-and-ink washes, on laid paper
Dimensions:Sheet: 8-1/16 x 5-5/8 in. (20.5 x 14.3cm)
Classification:Drawings
Credit Line:Harris Brisbane Dick Fund, 1935
Accession Number:35.103.34
Inscription: Numbered in brush and brown ink upper right: '55'; to the right of which in pen and dark ink: '34' [Fortuny Album I, no. 34].
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.1476; Gassier 1973, no.F55 [321]
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.
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.
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.
Goya: Drawings and Prints. Exh. cat. The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, 1955, Metropolitan Museum of Art catalogue supplement, no. 222.
Pierre Gassier, Juliet Wilson Bareau Goya His Life and Work. London, 1971, (ill. and Listed), fig. no. 1476, part III, p. 293, ill.
Pierre Gassier Francisco Goya Drawings, The Complete Albums. New York, 1973, fig. no. 321, p. 487.
A. Hyatt Mayor Goya: 67 Drawings. Exh. cat. The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, 1974, Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1974, no. 47, repr.
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. 57, pp. 186–87, ill.
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The Met's collection of drawings and prints—one of the most comprehensive and distinguished of its kind in the world—began with a gift of 670 works from Cornelius Vanderbilt, a Museum trustee, in 1880.
