Pray for her

In the centre of the engraving is a young woman seated on a low stool. Behind her a maid combs her hair and an old woman seated facing the viewer holds a rosary in her hands. The young woman lifts one of her legs to put on or perhaps take off her stocking, while looking straight ahead with a pleased gesture. She has washed herself or is about to do so, as can be seen from the basin of water and the jug that Goya has placed between the young woman in the foreground and the old woman in the background.

The painter has created two focal points in the engraving, the young woman dressed in light clothes and with the clear, clean complexion of her youth, and the old woman in the background, also dressed in light clothes. The rest remain in semi-darkness and we are unable to distinguish where the scene is taking place as there are no spatial references.

The manuscripts that explain the engravings in the series of The Caprices agree on the meaning of the print we are dealing with here. The most synthetic and clearest of them all is the one in the National Library, which reads as follows: "while the whores dress and dress themselves, the procuresses pray that God will give them great fortune, and teach them certain lessons".

It is clear that Goya is once again tackling the theme of prostitution, which he will refer to repeatedly in the engravings in this series. He depicts the intimate atmosphere in which the prostitute prepares for her work under the watchful eye of her procuress. Furthermore, the nature of this relationship in which the old woman is the guardian of her protégée is also very much in evidence.