The four additional plates for: Los Proverbios

Details

FRANCISCO DE GOYA Y LUCIENTES (1746-1828)
The four additional plates for: Los Proverbios
the complete volume of L'Art, 1877, Vol. II, from the deluxe edition of one hundred copies, published by A. Ballue, Paris & London, 1877, including two sets of Goya's four additional plates, etchings with aquatint, before 1824, one set on laid paper, without watermark, with letters (as described by Harris), and a set of proofs before letters, on thin laid Japan paper, all fine impressions, the full sheets, the set on laid paper bound in with paper guards, the set on Japan paper tipped at the sheet corners onto thin Bristol card, with protective tissue bound in, some minor foxing, otherwise in very good condition; the book containing a number of prints by other hands, including an etching of Goya's Self-Portrait by Félix Augustin Milius (1843-1894), several other prints also as proofs before letters, with title page, text and table of contents, all bound in a brown half-calf binding with marbled boards, generally in good condition (book)
443 x 335 x 60 mm. (overall)

Literature

Delteil 220-223; Harris 266-269

Brought to you by

Murray Macaulay

mmacaulay@christies.com +44 (0)20 7389 2252

Lot Essay

It is known that Los Proverbios originally comprised 22 plates, which were left with Goya's son Xavier upon the artist's departure from Spain. After Xavier's death in 1854 eighteen of them went to the Royal Academy of San Fernando in 1862, where they were cleaned and published in 1864. For reasons that have never been made clear, the remaining four plates made their way to Paris, where they were discovered in the early 1870's and published in the French periodical L'Art in 1877. Harris must not have been aware of the present deluxe edition of one hundred copies only. It included not only the standard impressions on laid paper, but also a complete set of impressions before letters on Japan paper, described by Harris as trial proofs before the edition.

More from Prints & Multiples

View All