GOYA’S EXTRAORDINARY PROVERBIOS: 1864 FIRST EDITION, ONE OF ONLY 300 COPIES, COMPLETE WITH 18 ORIGINAL ETCHINGS

GOYA Y LUCIENTES, Francisco José de. Los Proverbios. Madrid: Real Academia de Nobles Artes de San Fernando, 1864. Oblong folio (19 by 13 inches), 19th-century three-quarter straight-grain morocco, marbled boards and endpapers, top edge gilt. Housed in a custom clamshell box.

First edition of Goya’s allegorical series of 18 etchings with aquatint—one of only 300 copies in the first printing. “This edition is very well printed; the impressions are richly inked and tone is usually left on the highlights” (Harris).

Although none of the plates in the Proverbios have titles, it seems logical to suppose that Goya intended to title them as he had with the Caprichos and other sets of his engravings. “Research into the proverbs of his time has in fact revealed sayings which seem appropriate as titles for many of the Proverbios compositions, though it should be borne in mind that Goya very probably twisted the sayings by giving them some particular social, religious or political significance, which might well make them difficult to recognize” (Harris).

The 18 plates were not published during Goya’s lifetime, having been stored by his son after the artist’s death. The date of composition is debated but is generally accepted to be concurrent to, and after the completion of, the Tauromaquia series. Trial proofs were made by Roman Sarreta in 1854, although the images were exceptionally poor. The set presented here is from the first edition by Laurenciano Potenciano who had printed previously Goya’s masterpiece Desastres de la Guerra in 1863. “Impressions from the posthumous first edition of 1864 are very fine and are often superior to the weakly inked trial proofs of 1854” (Harris II, 434). There is no complete record of the plates in any of the working proof states, and no contemporary edition was made from the finished plates during Goya’s lifetime. Plates 8, 12, 16, 17 and 18 are not known in any contemporary impressions prior to this 1864 first edition. Lithograph title by J. Aragon and the complete set of 18 unnumbered etchings with aquatint on thick wove paper with the watermark ‘J.G.O.’ and a palmette device (partial palmette watermark visible on sheets 1, 3, 11, 17 and 18). Sheet size 326mm by 477mm. Harris II: 248-65.

A fine copy of the scarce first edition.