Self-Portrait in a Cocked Hat

Goya (Francisco de Goya y Lucientes)

ca. 1790 · Pen and brown (iron gall?) ink on paper · Robert Lehman Collection

This vigorous portrait, stippled and lined in brown ink, is likely one of Goya’s most faithful self-studies. The artist was probably middle-aged when he made the drawing, but his dashing appearance, complete with tricorne hat, belies his years. It shows Goya before a grave illness of 1793 that would compromise his vitality. Drawn with a blunt pen in distinct marks, the self-portrait was used to engrave the frontispiece for the third edition of Goya’s suite of lithographs illustrating bull fights, La Tauromaquia (1876).

Artist

Goya (Francisco de Goya y Lucientes)

Date

ca. 1790

Medium

Pen and brown (iron gall?) ink on paper

Department

Robert Lehman Collection

Credit line

Robert Lehman Collection, 1975