- Cronología
- 1786 - 1787
- Ubicación
- The Prado National Museum. Madrid, Madrid, Spain
- Dimensiones
- 130 x 131 cm
- Técnica y soporte
- Oil on canvas
- Reconocimiento de la autoría de Goya
- Documented work
- Titular
- El Prado National Museum
- Ficha: realización/revisión
- 15 Dec 2009 / 14 Jun 2023
- Inventario
- (P02896)
- Otros títulos:
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Hunter next to a Spring (Cazador junto a una fuente)
See The Flower Girls.
The tapestry of this cartoon was one of the six overdoor pieces that we know of thanks to the account left by the carpenter Josef Serrano, dated 17 November 1786 (see Boy on a Ram).
The cartoon was included in the inventory carried out by Vicente López in 1834 for Ferdinand VII's will, when it was attributed to Ramón Bayeu.
Around 1856 or 1857, the cartoon was moved from the Royal Tapestry Factory of Santa Bárbara to the Palacio de Oriente in Madrid, and it remained in the tapestry basements until, under orders given on 18 January and 9 February 1870, it was taken to the Prado Museum that same year. For the next sixty years the work was still attributed to Ramón Bayeu - it was almost certainly for that reason that it was relegated to the museum's basement - until Valentín de Sambricio documented Goya's authorship.
The subject of hunters had already been represented by Goya in his first series of cartoons, Hunting Scenes, but the hunter we see here is quite different. This is a gentleman, dressed in yellow riding coat and three-cornered hat, still with his shotgun on his lap whilst he rests leaning against a spring. His face denotes intelligence and bears the expression of a person lost in thought.
The composition is simple, very similar to that of the companion piece, Shepherd Playing a Dulzaina, where we again find a reclining male figure, forming a diagonal line and holding a musical instrument.
Some writers have suggested, because of its dimensions and tonal range, that this work would have flanked, along with Shepherd Playing a Dulzaina, the tapestry of The Grape Harvest. Its connection to autumn could be justified by its use of ochre hues and by the fact that this season was the most popular one for hunting. Elsewhere, if we take into account the American writer Janis Tomlinson's interpretation of this series of tapestries, which ties them to the different ages of man, it makes sense that the overdoor pieces that flank the autumn tapestry depict adults, whilst those that accompany the spring one show children.
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GoyaMusée Jacquemart-AndréParís1961consultant editor Jean-Gabriel Domergue. From December 1961 to February 1962cat. 5
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Tesoros del arte españolHemisfair’68San Antonio1968s/n
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El arte de GoyaMuseo de Arte Occidental de TokioTokyo1971from 16th 1971 to January 23th 1972. Exhibited also at the Kyoto Municipal Museum of Art, January 29th to March 15th 1972.cat. 13
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Goya. 250 AniversarioMuseo Nacional del PradoMadrid1996consultant editor Juan J. Luna. From March 29th to June 2nd 1996cat. 44
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Goya en Madrid. Cartones para tapices 1775-1794Museo Nacional del PradoMadrid2014p. 81
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Tapices de GoyaMadridPatrimonio Nacional1946pp. 141, 149, 151, 261, cat. 48 y lám. 1
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Vie et ouvre de Francisco de GoyaParísOffice du livre1970pp. 79, 97, cat. 270
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BarcelonaPolígrafa1970vol. I, pp. 269-270, cat. 228
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L’opera pittorica completa di GoyaMilanRizzoli1974p. 102, cat. 208
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Francisco de Goya, 4 vols.ZaragozaCaja de Ahorros de Zaragoza, Aragón y Rioja1980-1982vol. II, p. 43 y p. 57 (il.)
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Francisco de Goya, cartones y tapicescol. col. "Espasa Arte"Espasa Calpe1987pp. 147, 297, cat. 52C
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Francisco de Goya. Los cartones para tapices y los comienzos de su carrera en la corte de Madridcol. col. "Ensayos de Arte Cátedra"MadridCátedra1987pp. 225, 226 y p. 223 (il.)
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Goya. 250 AniversarioMadridMuseo del Prado1996p. 324, cat. 44 y p. 127 (il.)
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Salas del Palacio Real de El Pardo para las que se tejieron tapices sobre cartones de Francisco de Goya: identificación de las habitaciones y ajuste de las obras de Goya en los alzados de las paredesin HERRERO CARRETERO, Concha (curator, Tapices y cartones de Goya (catalogue of the exhibition organizated at the Palacio Real de Madrid, from may to june 1996)MadridPatrimonio Nacional, Goya 96, Lunwerg1996p. 164 (il.)
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Goya en Madrid. Cartones para tapices 1775-1794MadridMuseo Nacional del Prado2014p. 81