Francisco Goya

Exhibited by David Tunick, Inc.

Material Complete bound set of eighty etchings, most with aquatint, some all aquatint, printed in sepia ink, with burnishing. In the original Spanish mottled calf, marble end papers front and back of cover.

Dimensions 12.3 × 8.3 × 1 in

Place of Creation Spain

Price Available upon inquiry

Status Vetted

About the Work

Once in the esteemed collection of Vincent Van Gogh, collector, book dealer, and first cousin of the famous artist of the same name, this early, complete first edition of Francisco Goya’s Los Caprichos is in a superb state of preservation. It is exceptional for the brilliant, uncommonly consistent rare high quality of the prints and for being preserved in Goya’s original calf binding. The set is likely one of the earliest of the 27 sets produced and sold by the artist himself before he transferred ownership of the 80 copperplates and the balance of the printed images to the King of Spain in exchange for a royal stipend to his son, according to an 1803 letter from Goya to Minister Miguel Cayetano Soler.

Goya cleverly made this arrangement due to the looming threat of the Inquisition, which suspected the artist of criticizing the Church, the Government, and the Crown in his fantastical images.

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Provenance

Librería Lizcano y Cia., Jacometrezo 15, Madrid, blindstamp identified in the margin of plate 1 as that of this aforementioned bookstore; presumed sold directly to
Vincent van Gogh (1866–1911, Amsterdam), first cousin of the painter, art dealer, art collector and bibliophile, his bookplate pasted to the inside of the front cover; 1911 to
Estate of Vincent van Gogh; 1912 to
M.M. R. W. P de Vries [auction house], Amsterdam catalogue entitled Catalogue des collections de feu M. Vincent van Gogh, à Amsterdam.– Première Partie: Eaux-fortes et lithographies de Maîtres Modernes, Nov. 5-6, 1912, lot 455; reportedly to a private collector and by descent within the same family; to
Sotheby’s London Prints & Multiples, Sept. 21, 2019, lot 38, (misdescribed in the auction house catalogue); to
A succession of booksellers; 2026 to
David Tunick, Inc., New York