Francisco de Goya

A woman’s charity (Caridad de mujer)

Clasificación
A woman’s charity (Caridad de mujer)
Datos Generales
Cronología
Ca. 1812 - 1815
Dimensiones
156 x 208 mm
Técnica y soporte
Aguafuerte, buril, lavis y bruñidor
Reconocimiento de la autoría de Goya
Undisputed work
Ficha: realización/revisión
15 Dec 2010 / 24 May 2023
Inventario
225
Inscripciones

36 (on the lower left-hand corner).

Historia

See Sad presentiments of what must come to pass.

The title was handwritten on the print by Goya in the first and only series that is known to have been printed at the time the works were created, which the artist gave to his friend Agustín Ceán Bermúdez. Therefore, the title was etched into the plate at a later date and left unchanged as of the first edition of the Disasters of War printed by the San Fernando Royal Academy of Fine Arts in Madrid in 1863, after the printing of the series in the possession of Ceán Bermúdez.

There is a surviving preparatory drawing for this print which is housed in the Prado Museum.

Análisis artístico

A woman covered from head to toe is shown carrying a plate that she is offering to a group of figures lying on the ground before her, exhausted by hunger and perhaps on the point of death. A short distance behind this group on the right-hand side of the composition an obese priest watches the scene unfolding with indifference - perhaps because he is accustomed to such sights, so typical in times of war.

The scene reflects on the one hand the famine that plagued the population during the Spanish War of Independence, in particular between 1811 and 1812. On the other hand, it reflects the lack of solidarity shown by the most affluent classes - especially within the Church - and the help that was given spontaneously by those who had little to offer.

The figure completely covered by a tunic is reminiscent of the work of Salvator Rosa (Naples, 1615-Rome, 1673), which Goya might have been familiar with from his stay in Italy from 1769 to 1771. Goya also produced panneggio (drapery) exercises featuring fully covered figures in his Italian Sketchbook which might be related to the work Charon passant les ombres (Charon Ferrying Dead Souls Across the Styx) (Louvre Museum, Paris, 1735) by Pierre Subleyras (Saint-Gilles-du-Gard, 1699 - Rome, 1749).

Conservación

La plancha se conserva en la Calcografía Nacional (cat. 300).

Exposiciones
  • 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
  • Francisco Goya. Capricci, follie e disastri della guerra
    San Donato Milanese
    2000
    Opere grafiche della Fondazione Antonio Mazzotta
  • Goya. Opera grafica
    Pinacoteca del Castello di San Giorgio
    Legnano
    2006
    exhibition celebrated from December 16th 2006 to April 1st 2007
  • Goya et la modernité
    Pinacothèque de Paris
    París
    2013
    from October 11st 2013 to March 16th 2014
  • 2022
Bibliografía
  • BERUETE Y MONET, Aureliano de
    Goya, grabador
    MadridBlass S.A.
    1918
    cat. 151
  • HARRIS, Tomás
    Goya engravings and lithographs, vol. I y II.
    OxfordBruno Cassirer
    1964
    cat. 169
  • GASSIER, Pierre y WILSON, Juliet
    Vie et ouvre de Francisco de Goya
    ParísOffice du livre
    1970
    cat. 1072
  • SANTIAGO, Elena M. (coordinadora)
    Catálogo de las estampas de Goya en la Biblioteca Nacional
    MadridMinisterio de Educación y Cultura, Biblioteca Nacional
    1996
    cat. 258
  • OROPESA, Marisa and RINCÓN GARCÍA, Wilfredo
    ParísPinacoteca de París
    2013
    p. 144
  • WILSON BAREAU, Juliet
    Goya. In the Norton Simon Museum
    PasadenaNorton Simon Museum
    2016
    pp. 114-151
  • TORAL OROPESA, María and MARTÍN MEDINA, Víctor
    Museo de Bellas Artes de Badajoz y Diputación de Badajoz
    2022
    p. 70
Enlaces externos
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