Original etching and aquatint by Francisco de Goya, Duendecitos, no. 49 of Los Caprichos, in the fifth edition printed between 1881 and 1886 by the Calcografía of the Real Academia de Bellas Artes de San Fernando. In the scene three goblin-like friars eat and drink on the sly; the central one raises a hand with very long fingers, which in 18th-century popular speech amounted to calling him a thief.
Original etching and aquatint by Francisco de Goya, Duendecitos, no. 49 of Los Caprichos, in the fifth edition printed between 1881 and 1886 by the Calcografía of the Real Academia de Bellas Artes de San Fernando. In the scene three goblin-like friars eat and drink on the sly; the central one raises a hand with very long fingers, which in 18th-century popular speech amounted to calling him a thief.
This fifth edition was pulled in some 210 impressions, from bevelled coppers, in soft sepia ink and on strong paper without watermark, as Tomás Harris describes it in his catalogue of Goya's graphic work. The album was bound along the upper edge of the prints.
Medium: Etching, aquatint and drypoint.
Artist / after: Francisco de Goya y Lucientes (1746-1828).
Date: Fifth edition, 1881-1886 (coppers of 1797-1798).
Source: Los Caprichos; Calcografía de la Real Academia de Bellas Artes de San Fernando, Madrid.
Dimensions: Plate mark 5.9 x 8.5 in (15 x 21.5 cm); sheet 10.2 x 14.9 in (26 x 37.8 cm).
Condition: Oxidation staining spread over the sheet, clearly visible in the photograph; some of it reaches the edge of the image.