- Cronología
- Ca. 1797
- Ubicación
- The Prado National Museum. Madrid, Madrid, Spain
- Dimensiones
- 197 x 141 mm
- Técnica y soporte
- Reconocimiento de la autoría de Goya
- Documented work
- Titular
- El Prado National Museum
- Ficha: realización/revisión
- 24 Aug 2021 / 09 May 2023
- Inventario
- D3956
Confidence (in pencil, lower right).
Watermark: [Shield with helmet, bird inside, and underneath "D.N J.PH GISBERT / ALCOY"] (lower half)
The drawing passed by inheritance in 1828 to Javier Goya, the painter's son, and in 1854 to Mariano Goya y Goicoechea, the artist's grandson. It was subsequently owned by Valentín Carderera (ca. 1861) and Mariano Carderera (ca. 1880). In 1886 it was acquired from Mariano Carderera by the General Direction of Public Instruction and was assigned to the Prado Museum, where it entered on 12 November 1886.
Goya was always fascinated by amorous relationships between women. In this drawing, two women dressed in lock-suits are engaged in opening or closing locks on each other. Their faces cannot be seen, as they cover their heads with hoods, perhaps in allusion to the furtiveness and prohibition of their relationship.
According to Gassier, this is a theme with a strangely erotic symbolism. In a number of contemporary and later drawings, the painter depicted the woman wearing a kind of armour or dress full of locks, but almost always with a man trying to open them, hence the boldness and modernity of this drawing, which goes much further in its pretensions and is the first and probably the only time Goya treated this theme from this exclusively female perspective and in such an open manner. In fact, this excessive boldness, scandalous for the time, must have been the reason why this drawing, probably preparatory for the Caprices, was never engraved or included in the edition of the Caprices.
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Goya. Gemälde Zeichnungen. Graphik. TapisserienKunsthalle BaselBasle1953from January 23th to April 12th 1953
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Los dibujos de GoyaMuseo Provincial de ZaragozaZaragoza1978exhibition organized by Museo Provincial de Zaragoza, Ministerio de Cultura and Ayuntamiento de Zaragoza, exhibition guide written by Miguel Beltrán Lloris and Micaela Pérez Sáenz. October 1978cat. 53
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Europa 1789. Aufklärung, Verklärung, VerfallHamburger KunsthalleHamburg1989
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Goya. El cuaderno italianoMuseo Nacional del PradoMadrid1994
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Santander2017cat.6
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MadridMuseo del Prado1954n. 213
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Vie et ouvre de Francisco de GoyaParísOffice du livre1970p. 187, cat. 656
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Dibujos de Goya, 2 volsBarcelonaNoguer1975p. 499, cat. 328
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El mundo de Goya en sus dibujosMadridUrbión1979pp. 121-122
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Goya, Das Zeitalter de Revolutionen. 1789-1830HamburgPrestel-Verlag Münche und Hamburger Kunsthalle1980p. 334
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MadridFundación Amigos del Museo del Prado2008
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Goya's last worksNew YorkThe Frick Collection and Yale University Press2006pp. 195-197, cat. 34
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SantanderFundación Botín y Museo Nacional del Prado2017p. 38