Francisco José Goya y Lucientes, Pintor (Francisco José Goya y Lucientes, Painter)

Datelate 18th-early 19th century

Maker Francisco José Goya y Lucientes Spanish, 1746-1828

Label TextWelcome to the eerie and enigmatic world of Los Caprichos! In this astonishing series of prints, Francisco de Goya (1746–1828) takes aim at Spanish society at the close of the 18th century. This was an era marked by numerous social upheavals: the fiscal crises wrought by war and taxation, the shifting power dynamics of the ruling classes, the draconian fanaticism of the Spanish Inquisition, and the turning point in European thought known as the Enlightenment. In sardonic and often surrealistic vignettes, the Los Caprichos series lays bare the outmoded belief systems, irrelevant superstitions, ignorance, decadence, and hypocrisy of the status quo, and it champions reason, justice, social reform, and intellectual freedom. Accompanying texts added by Goya hint at the meaning of each image, which is often obscure to us. Because the series follows no sequential narrative, its stories are open to many interpretations. Goya used his own likeness for the frontispiece of Los Caprichos. Looking debonair in a fashionable top hat and cravat, he casts a sly, sidelong glance at us, as if to foretell the visual adventure about to unfold. In the caption, he identifies himself as a painter, announcing that his primary occupation is that of an artist, not a printmaker. This distinction is important: in Goya’s time, printmakers reproduced the work of others, while artists relied on their own imaginations.

Object number44.534

Photo CreditPhoto: Elizabeth Mann

Exhibition HistorySeattle, Washington, Seattle Art Museum, Francisco Goya and Robert Heinecken: The Risk Of Satire, May 8, 1993 - January 2, 1994. Seattle Art Museum, Seattle, Washington, SAM on Paper: Francisco de Goya’s Los Caprichos, October 3, 2025 - March 29, 2026.

Credit LineEugene Fuller Memorial Collection

MediumEtching, aquatint, drypoint, burin