- Cronología
- Ca. 1797 - 1799
- Dimensiones
- 202 x 151 mm
- Técnica y soporte
- Etching, burnished aquatint and drypoint
- Reconocimiento de la autoría de Goya
- Undisputed work
- Ficha: realización/revisión
- 25 Nov 2010 / 29 May 2024
- Inventario
- 225
God forgive her: And she was his mother (at the bottom)
16. (in the upper right-hand corner)
See Francisco de Goya y Lucientes, Painter.
There is a state test that has a handwritten inscription that reads: Forgive me for God's sake and it was his mother. Other state proofs were made, in the title of which, instead of a colon between the two sentences, there is only a dot.
We can consider drawing no. 6 from Album B, as well as Dream no. 20, as previous works for the production of this print.
In the centre of the engraving, a young woman holds a half-open fan in one of her hands and gazes at it with a haughty gesture. Next to her is a female figure who is covered, with only the top of her head uncovered. The young woman does not seem to recognise the woman who has approached her.
The engraving has been briefly described in the surviving manuscripts of the Caprices series. In the Ayala manuscript it is said that "there are daughters who do not even know their mothers, who go about begging for alms". The manuscript in the Prado Museum explains that "she won the lottery. She goes down to the Prado, hears a filthy, decrepit old woman begging for alms, she bids her farewell; the old woman urges her to turn around and finds - who would have thought it - that the poor woman is her mother". Lastly, reference should be made to the manuscript in the National Library, which states that "a vicious daughter who becomes a whore does not even know her mother, who is perhaps begging for alms".
This engraving criticises a circumstance that frequently occurred in the society of the time, that of those young women who, thanks to prostitution, were able to leave the environments they came from and achieve a more comfortable economic situation. In some cases, they seemed to have forgotten their origins, as in the present engraving in which the young woman does not realise that it is her own mother who approaches her to beg for alms.
Some specialists, including Enrique Lafuente Ferrari, believe that the woman who approaches the young woman could be a procuress, as in certain cases prostitutes called them "mother".
The plate is preserved in the National Chalcography (no. 187).
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Goya. Gemälde Zeichnungen. Graphik. TapisserienKunsthalle BaselBasle1953from January 23th to April 12th 1953cat. 208
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De grafiek van GoyaRijksmuseum RijksprentenkabinetAmsterdam1970from November 13th 1970 to January 17th 1971cat. 21
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Goya dans les collections suissesFundación Pierre GianaddaMartigny1982consultant editor Pierre Gassier. From June 12th to August 29th 1982cat. 48
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Goya. La década de Los CaprichosMadrid1992organized by Real Academia de Bellas Artes de San Fernando sponsored by Fundación Central Hispano, Madrid, consultant editor Nigel Glendinnig. From October 26th 1992 to January 10th 1993cat. 75
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Francisco de GoyaMuseo d'Arte ModernaLugano1996exhibition celebrated from September 22nd to November 17th.cat. 16, p.43
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Ydioma universal: Goya en la Biblioteca NacionalBiblioteca NacionalMadrid1996from September 19th to December 15th 1996cat. 116
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Francisco Goya. Sein leben im spiegel der graphik. Fuendetodos 1746-1828 Bordeaux. 1746-1996Galerie KornfeldBern1996from November 21st 1996 to January 1997cat. 22
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Goya artista de su tiempo y Goya artista únicoThe National Museum of Western ArtTokyo1999from December 1st to July 3th 1999cat. 94
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Goya. La imagen de la mujerMuseo Nacional del PradoMadrid2001from October 30th 2001 to February 10th 2002. Exhibitied also at the National Gallery of Art, Washington, March 10th to June 2nd 2002, consultant editor Francisco Calvo Serrallercat. 91
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Goya. Opera graficaPinacoteca del Castello di San GiorgioLegnano2006exhibition celebrated from December 16th 2006 to April 1st 2007p.26
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Goya et la modernitéPinacothèque de ParisParís2013from October 11st 2013 to March 16th 2014cat. 181
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Hamburg2019cat. 40
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Expérience GoyaLille2021cat. 38
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Goya engravings and lithographs, vol. I y II.OxfordBruno Cassirer1964p.86, cat. 51
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Vie et ouvre de Francisco de GoyaParísOffice du livre1970p.178, cat. 483
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Goya, la década de los caprichos: dibujos y aguafuertesMadridReal Academia de Bellas Artes de San Fernando1992pp.125-129, cat. 74-76
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Catálogo de las estampas de Goya en la Biblioteca NacionalMadridMinisterio de Educación y Cultura, Biblioteca Nacional1996p.82, cat. 104
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El libro de los caprichos: dos siglos de interpretaciones (1799-1999). Catálogo de los dibujos, pruebas de estado, láminas de cobre y estampas de la primera ediciónMadridMuseo Nacional del Prado1999pp.124-127
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ParísPinacoteca de París2013p. 247
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Goya. In the Norton Simon MuseumPasadenaNorton Simon Museum2016pp. 42-75
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HamburgHirmer2019p. 251
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Expérience Goya (cat. expo)LilleRéunion des Musées Nationaux2021p. 89
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Museo de Bellas Artes de Badajoz y Diputación de Badajoz2022p. 34