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Drawing was a fundamental part of Goya’s art. In Bordeaux, it was his primary
mode of expression. The nine hundred or so drawings he made over his lifetime
fall into two categories: preparatory studies for works in other media (primarily
his series of prints), and private exercises. The latter were collected into albums by
Goya, or by others after his death. They are conventionally lettered A through H.
Goya began to make his album drawings not long after losing his hearing, when
he was cut off from normal communication through conversation. They have been
described as a form of “talking to himself.” They may also have been made to
entertain his friends. The last two of his eight albums, known as G and H, date
from his Bordeaux years, and a selection from them is presented here.
In his Bordeaux albums, Goya abandoned the medium of pen, brush, and ink he
had used in earlier private drawings in favor of black crayon—a choice undoubtedly
inspired by his work in lithography. This softer medium allowed for greater
breadth of execution and compensated for a certain loss of manual dexterity. The
drawings from Album G are inscribed with short, enigmatic texts, as in most of
the earlier albums; in Album H he signed the sheets but wrote inscriptions on only
six. The figural style here is energetic and cartoonish, rather than classical and
correct. Flashes of satire and mockery — recalling the spirit of his famous prints,
Los Caprichos — run through the sheets. These intimate, freely executed works
draw us into the artist’s stream of consciousness as he reacts to novel sights in
Bordeaux, revisits long-standing themes, and conjures enigmatic images out of his
imagination to puzzle his friends. The variety of expressive effects that Goya
extracts from his versatile black crayon as it hovers over textured paper attest to
his undiminished powers as a draftsman up to the very end.
For more information about the works of art included in the exhibition and to see the related images, click on the following links:
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