FRANCISCO DE GOYA

FRANCISCO DE GOYA Y LUCIENTES (Fuendetodos, Zaragoza, 1746 - Bordeaux, France, 1828).
"Los Proverbios" (18 etchings) and "L'Art" (with 3 etchings).
Two copies (books of engravings) with original etchings, from the collection "Les Proverbes" (The Follies), ed.1864.
"Los Proverbios", published by the Real Academia de Nobles Artes de San Fernando (ed.1864 (1875)).
"L'Art Revue Hebdomadaire ilustreé", troisième année 1877, Tome I (Tome VIII of the collection).
Slight damp stains.
There is slight damage to the cover.
Size: 31,5 x 44,5 cm (prints); 44 x 32 cm (covers "L'Art").
Exceptional lot as it brings together an 1864 edition of Goya's "Los proverbios" (the year in which the first edition was published), with its 18 engravings, together with three more engravings from the same series, but published later by the magazine "L'Art". After Goya's death, "Los proverbios" (popularly known as "Los Disparates") remained unpublished until the Royal Academy of San Fernando selected 18 etchings for publication in an edition of 1864 (a second edition is preserved in the Biblioteca Nacional). Four more etchings came out in 1875, published by "L'Art": three of them are the ones preserved in the copy we present here. These were not taken into account by the Royal Academy because when Goya died they were left in the hands of Eugenio Lucas.
The edition shown here, although the year 1864 appears on the title page, is considered to be a second edition, and the actual year is 1875. It is therefore an identical copy to the one in the Biblioteca Nacional. The engravings of "Los proverbios", in etching and aquatint, with drypoint and burin interventions, are defined by their allegorical charge and enigmatic meaning. Goya produced the prints shortly before he moved to France for good (between 1815 and 1824). They are dreamlike, corrosive visions, critical of a system that instilled terror and death (he himself had been summoned by the Inquisition). Nightmarish carnivals, sinister marriages (of convenience), grotesque creatures, Dantesque orators... are some of the themes. As for those published in "L'Art", they are circus and war allegories. In conclusion, this is a series rich in readings, and of an artistic level worthy of the best engraver in Spain and one of the most notable in the history of art.