- Museum number
- 1980,0628.56
- Description
-
Lunatics; two crouching figures beneath the legs of a grinning man. c.1825-28
Black chalk and crayon
- Production date
- 1825-1828 (c.)
- Dimensions
-
Height: 191 millimetres
-
Width: 147 millimetres
- $Inscriptions
-
- Curator's comments
- Modified text from McDonald 2013
After Goya moved from Spain to Bordeaux in 1824 he continued to create remarkable prints and drawings. Alongside his series of lithographic prints the Bulls of Bordeaux, Goya worked on new albums of drawings now referred to as the Bordeaux Albums I (G) and II (H). These contain his last drawings and demonstrate that his advanced age did not impair the sureness of his hand or his tremendous imagination. The drawings from both albums are executed in black chalk or crayon, a choice that may have been prompted by his lithographic work where he drew with crayon directly on the stone before removing the areas that were to be light with a scraper.
Lunatics is from Album G that originally comprised drawings numbered up to 60, of which 55 are known, with subjects including modes of transport for beggars, cripples, madmen and punishment. Together they form a powerful group relating to extremes of the human condition. Goya gave pithy titles to all the drawings in this series, several of them longer and more descriptive – possibly intended as the basis for a new set of prints.
This drawing belongs to a group of sheets in the album relating to mad people. An amusing game is being played: a figure crawls under the legs of another man who wears an inane grin and has his jacket pulled up to his head.
Goya often recycled subjects and motifs giving them powerful new meaning. In this drawing the clenched fists of the lunatic being straddled repeats the gesture of the figure in Plate 54 of the Caprichos that has been interpreted as alluding to sexuality (Wilson-Bareau 2001, p.199). In the Plate 76 of the Disasters of War Goya used the arrangement of a dominant standing figure with another peering through legs as in the present work.
Literature
P. Gassier and J. Wilson, 'Goya: His Life and Work with a Catalogue Raisonné of the Paintings, Drawings and Engravings', London 1971, no.1744; P. Gassier, 'The Drawings of Goya, I: The Complete Albums', London 1973, no.397; J. Wilson-Bareau, Goya: 'Drawings from his Private Album's, exh. cat., Hayward Gallery, London 2001, no 101; M. P. McDonald, 'Renaissance to Goya: Prints and drawings from Spain', exh.cat., British Museum, London 2012, pp.270-1; M. P. McDonald, 'El trazo español en el British Museum: Dibujos del Renacimiento a Goya', exh. cat., Museo Nacional del Prado, Madrid 2013, cat.no.66.
- Location
- Not on display
- Exhibition history
-
1984, BM, Master Drawings/Watercolours, no.154
1991 Sept-Nov, Bristol AG, 'Primacy of Drawings', no.58
1991 Nov-Dec, Stoke on Trent AG, 'Primacy of Drawings', no.58
1992 Jan-Feb, Graves AG, Sheffield, 'Primacy of Drawings', no.58
2000 Feb-May, Statens Mus for Kunst, Copenhagen, Goya's Realism, no.55
2001 Feb-May, Hayward Gallery, London, "Goya's Drawings..."
2012/13 Sept-Jan, London, British Museum, ‘Renaissance to Goya: Prints and Drawings from Spain’
2013 March-June, Madrid, Museo Nacional del Prado, ‘El trazo español en el British Museum …’
2013, Aug-Dec, Sydney, AGNSW, 'Renaissance to Goya'
2013-4, Dec-Mar, Santa Fe, New Mexico Museum of Modern Art, 'Renaissance to Goya'
2023-2024, 25 Oct-11 Feb, Munch Museet, Oslo, Norway, Munch's Goya
- Acquisition date
- 1980
- Acquisition notes
- This item has an uncertain or incomplete provenance for the years 1933-45. The British Museum welcomes information and assistance in the investigation and clarification of the provenance of all works during that era.
- Department
- Prints and Drawings
- Registration number
- 1980,0628.56
