Self-Portrait; wearing a top hat facing left within a drawn frame (recto); two studies of his face (verso)

Goya (Francisco de Goya y Lucientes)|Goya (Francisco de Goya y Lucientes)

ca. 1797–98 · Red chalk (recto), pen and ink and red chalk (verso) on laid paper · Drawings and Prints

In this preparatory drawing for the first print in the Caprichos (50.558.33), Goya wears the latest French fashions. Adopted by the emerging Spanish middle class in the 1790s, this style of dress served as a sign of both prosperous respectability and receptiveness to foreign influences. His expression suggests his critical stance toward the vices and errors he satirized in the images that followed in the Caprichos. The mannered way he represents himself—including the narrowed eyes and curved lips—also reflects his knowledge of popular and influential treatises on physiognomy and expression.

Artist

Goya (Francisco de Goya y Lucientes)|Goya (Francisco de Goya y Lucientes)

Date

ca. 1797–98

Medium

Red chalk (recto), pen and ink and red chalk (verso) on laid paper

Department

Drawings and Prints

Credit line

Bequest of Walter C. Baker, 1971