Francisco de Goya

Datos Generales
Cronología
1815 - 1819
Dimensiones
245 x 350 mm
Técnica y soporte
Aguafuerte, aguatinta y punta seca
Reconocimiento de la autoría de Goya
Documented work
Ficha: realización/revisión
22 Aug 2021 / 05 Jun 2023
Inventario
-
Historia

See Femenine folly.

This is one of the four unpublished prints that the magazine L'Art published in 1877. The plate is in a private collection in Paris.

There is a print in the Lazaro Galdiano Foundation with the number 12 handwritten in the upper left corner and the legend Timely folly in the lower margin.

One of the four versions published in L'Art has the following inscription printed in the lower margin:  Goya inv. et sc. / UNA REINA DEL CIRCO / Une reine du Cirque / L’Art-F.cois Liénard Imp. Paris.

Análisis artístico

A young woman rides a horse standing upright and holding it by the reins. The horse, in turn, swings on a rope that runs from side to side, the ends of which are outside the frame of the picture. In the background, a crowd enjoys the circus show. 

Against the black background, the whiteness of the magnificently modelled horse and the girl is silhouetted against the black background. The girl is dressed like a maja, with a neat chignon tied high on her head, and expresses a restrained tension. Both she and the horse seem serene despite the difficult balance. This is because, if we look closely, we can see how the rope rests on the ground, not implying any kind of risk. While in other prints Goya criticises unbridled passions, in this one he possibly does the opposite: he reproaches excessive control, as no extreme is good for the human spirit. It has also been seen as a representation of the difficult balance of feminine virtue over natural passions, symbolised by the horse, under the gaze of an unscrupulous public watching for the fall.

This evocation of the circus is related to an image that may have remained in Goya´s memory from one of his visits to the circus. In it he fuses two types of spectacle: tightrope walking and the acrobatics of the amazons on horses.

The audience in the background is dissolved by a vertical stripe, which leaves it semi-transparent as if it were seen through a lattice. The parallel touches of drypoint on the horse stand out.

Exposiciones
  • Goya
    Musée Jacquemart-André
    París
    1961
    consultant editor Jean-Gabriel Domergue. From December 1961 to February 1962
  • Etchings by Francosco Goya
    Johannesburgo
    Johannesburgo
    1974
  • Boston
    1974
  • 1976
  •  Grabados de Goya: colección propiedad de la Biblioteca Nacional, que se conserva en su Gabinete de
    Casa de la Amistad de Moscú
    Moscow
    1979
    exhibition displayed from January 18th to 31st 1979
  • Goya. Das Zeitalter der Revolucionen. Kunst um 1800 (1980 – 1981)
    Hamburger Kunsthalle
    Hamburg
    1980
  • Goya y el espíritu de la Ilustración
    Museo Nacional del Prado
    Madrid
    1988
    from October 6th to December 18th 1988. Exhibited also at Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, January 18th to March 26th 1989; The Metropolitan Museum of Art, Nueva York, May 9th to July 16th 1989, Madrid curator Manuela B. Mena Marqués, scientific directors Alfonso E. Pérez Sánchez and Eleanor A. Sayre
  • Francisco Goya. Sein leben im spiegel der graphik. Fuendetodos 1746-1828 Bordeaux. 1746-1996
    Galerie Kornfeld
    Bern
    1996
    from November 21st 1996 to January 1997
  • Goya. 250 Aniversario
    Museo Nacional del Prado
    Madrid
    1996
    consultant editor Juan J. Luna. From March 29th to June 2nd 1996
  • Goya grabador
    Museo del Grabado Español Contemporáneo
    Marbella
    1996
    from March 8th to May 5th 1996
  • Zaragoza
    1996
  • London
    1997
  • 1999
  • Madrid
    1999
  • Schlaf der Vernunft. Original radierungen von Francisco de Goya
    Munich
    2000
  • Goya en tiempos de guerra
    Museo Nacional del Prado
    Madrid
    2008
    consultant editor Manuela B. Mena Marqués, from April 14th to July 13th 2008
  • Bilbao
    2012
Bibliografía
  • HARRIS, Tomás
    Bibliography']['number
    OxfordBruno Cassirer
    1964
    p. 403, cat. 267
  • GASSIER, Pierre y WILSON, Juliet
    Vie et ouvre de Francisco de Goya
    Bibliography']['number
    ParísOffice du livre
    1970
    p. 326, cat. 1602
  • SANTIAGO, Elena M. (coordinadora)
    Catálogo de las estampas de Goya en la Biblioteca Nacional
    Bibliography']['number
    MadridMinisterio de Educación y Cultura, Biblioteca Nacional
    1996
    p. 246, cat. 397
  • CARRETE, Juan, MATILLA, José Manuel, AULLÓN DE HARO, Pedro, BOZAL, Valeriano, GLENDINNING, Nigel, VEGA, Jesusa y BLAS, Javier
    Bibliography']['number
    MadridReal Academia de Bellas Artes de San Fernando y Calcografía Nacional
    1996
    pp. 109 y 113, cat. 20 y 51-54
  • MATILLA, José Manuel
    Bibliography']['number
    Roma Edizioni de Luca
    2000
    pp. 156-157, cat. 58
  • MATILLA, José Manuel
    Bibliography']['number
    MadridMuseo Nacional y Ediciones El Viso
    2008
    pp. 492-493, cat. 184
  • WILSON BAREAU, Juliet
    Goya. In the Norton Simon Museum
    Bibliography']['number
    PasadenaNorton Simon Museum
    2016
    pp. 204-211
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