Boys Playing at Soldiers (Muchachos jugando a soldados)

The tapestry resulting from this cartoon was made to be hung over a door, on the west wall of the bedroom, facing its companion piece, Children with a Cart.

Four children play at being soldiers, with rifles, a drum and a miniature church tower from the fair.

Children are a recurrent theme in Goya's work, and this was not the first time that he used them in decorative overdoor pieces - he did the same in the dining room of the palace of El Pardo, where the children were used to counterbalance the adult figures. Here, the children's games, so loaded with fantasy, can, according to Tomlinson, be tied to the fleeting nature of childish revelry and the madness of the adult spectacle represented in the neighbouring scenes.

By painting children in works designed to be hung above doors and windows, the artist did not need to drastically reduce the size of the figures, and the series maintained a more coherent appearance.