Prostitute Soliciting a Fat, Ugly Man, Folio 49 (recto)

Description

Among the great figures of the pictorial arts in the West, Francisco de Goya is one of the very few whose work as a graphic artist is arguably even more important than his paintings. Alongside a prodigious output of prints, he created eight sketchbooks of drawings over the course of 30 years. This double-sided sheet comes from the so-called Album B, or Madrid Album, which, like all of them, was scattered throughout the world in public and private collections after his death. The drawings reveal Goya’s powers of invention and observation, and his biting satire. On the recto side of the sheet, a vulgar encounter between a prostitute and a pot-bellied lecher reveals the bluntness of the Goya’s social criticism. The verso drawing is less easily pinned down, though it follows traditional iconography for representations of Saint Margaret of Cortona, a nobleman’s mistress who repented and entered a convent after her lover’s dog led her to his murdered corpse.

Provenance

Javier Goya; Mariano Goya; Valentín Carderera(?); Federico de Madrazo; Clementi-Vannutelli Collection, Rome. Dorothy Edinburg, Boston; Jo-Ann Edinburg Pinkowitz, John Edinburg, and Hope Edinburg; [sold by them at Sotheby's, New York, 12 November 1987, no. 108]. [Pace Gallery, New York]. [David Carritt Limited/The Artemis Group, London].; On the early provenance of the work, see Gassier 1973, 14-16, and Juliet Wilson-Bareau, "Goya in the Metropolitan Museum," Burlington Magazine 138 (February 1996), 102.

Prostitute Soliciting a Fat, Ugly Man, Folio 49 (recto)

Francisco de Goya

1796–97

Accession Number

1995.15.a

Medium

brush and gray and black washes on laid paper

Dimensions

Sheet: 23.5 x 14.5 cm (9 1/4 x 5 11/16 in.); Image: 18.7 x 12 cm (7 3/8 x 4 3/4 in.)

Classification

Drawing

Museum

The Cleveland Museum of Art

Cleveland, United States

Credit Line

John L. Severance Fund