FRANCISCO DE GOYA Y LUCIENTES (1746-1828), Yes he broke the pot (Si quebró el Cantaro) Plate 25 from: Los Caprichos

FRANCISCO DE GOYA Y LUCIENTES (1746-1828)
Yes he broke the pot (Si quebró el Cantaro)
Plate 25 from: Los Caprichos
etching with burnished aquatint, drypoint and engraving, on laid paper, a good impression from the First Edition, published by the artist, Madrid, 1799, framed
Plate: 8 x 5⁷⁄₈ in. (203 x 149 mm.)
Sheet: 11³⁄₄ x 8 (298 x 203 mm.)

Presumably Manuel Fernández Durán y Pando, Marqués de Perales del Río (1818-1886), Madrid.
Don Pedro Fernández-Durán (1846-1930), Madrid; with his stamp (Lugt 747b); presumably by descent from the above.
Don Tomas de la Maza y Saavedra (1896-1975); gift from the above.
With Herman Shickman Fine Arts, New York.
With Stuart Denenberg, Los Angeles.
Private American Collection; acquired from the above.

Delteil 62; Harris 60

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Lot Essay

In the Caprichos Goya comments on abuses of the power dynamic inherent in raising children. In If He Broke the Pitcher – which follows an image of the institutionalized corporal humiliation from the Spanish Inquisition…Goya confronts the viewer with the loaded moment before a young boy is spanked for breaking a vessel filled with water. The woman, probably his mother, holds a shoe high over her head. Both the shoe’s sole and the child’s bared bottom face the viewer. The boy’s head peeks out under her arm as he tries to wriggle free from what will surely be a strong blow, his expression screwed up with anguished anticipation. The spilled water has not yet sunk into the ground, indicating that the woman’s reaction has been swift. Her harsh reprimand for a simple accident raises the question of whether the punishment fits the crime.’

Stepanek, S.L., Tomlinson, J., Wilson-Bareau, J., Mena Marqués, M.B., et al, Goya: Order & Disorder, Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, 2014, p. 111.