What a tailor can do! (Lo que puede un Sastre!)
Plate 52 from: Los Caprichos
Important information about this lot
Price Realised USD 3,750
Estimate
USD 2,000 - USD 3,000
Estimates do not reflect the final hammer price and do not include buyer's premium, any applicable taxes or artist's resale right. Please see the Conditions of Sale for full details.
Closed: 23 Oct 2020
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FRANCISCO DE GOYA Y LUCIENTES (1746-1828)
What a tailor can do! (Lo que puede un Sastre!)
Plate 52 from: Los Caprichos
Prado manuscript: ‘How often some ridiculously appearing fellow can be suddenly transformed into a presumptuous pretender who appears to be important but really is nothing at all. All this can be accomplished through the ability of a tailor and the foolishness of those who make judgements on the basis of (external) appearances.’
‘Here the Ayala text of 1799-1803, as usual, is far more explicit: ‘Superstition brings an ignorant public to worship a clothed tree trunk (actually a ‘scare-crow’.) The Madrid Biblioteca Nacional text is even more explicitly ‘church’ oriented: ‘Superstition in general would have a whole town on its knees and worshipping with fear any old tree trunk dressed up to look holy’. The subject of this work appears to concern the hypocrisy of the clergy's fooling of the general public.’
Johnson, R. S., Francisco Goya, Los Caprichos, R.S. Johnson Fine Art, Chicago, 1992, p. 130.
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Condition report
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The condition of lots can vary widely and the nature of the lots sold means that they are unlikely to be in a perfect condition. Lots are sold in the condition they are in at the time of sale.
In very good condition, the hand-made laid paper without watermark, with margins, the platemark deep and well-defined (the plates were bevelled in the Fourth Edition), two small brown stains in the left margin with minor binding defects at the left edge.
Please note that this lot is framed.
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Lot 52Sale 19889
What a tailor can do! (Lo que puede un Sastre!)
Plate 52 from: Los CaprichosFRANCISCO DE GOYA Y LUCIENTES (1746-1828)Estimate: USD 2,000 - 3,000
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