Goya, “Franco. Goya y Lucientes, Pintor”, 1799

Francisco de Goya (aka Francisco José de Goya y Lucientes; Francisco Goya) (1746–1828)

“Franco. Goya y Lucientes, Pintor”, 1799, from the second edition published in c.1855, Plate 1 (Frontispiece) to the series, “Los Caprichos.”

Etching, aquatint, drypoint and engraving on wove paper, trimmed within the platemark and “restored” with paint made from a crushed hornet. The sheet is laid upon a support of heavy wove paper (Dutch Etch).

Size: (sheet) 19.1 x 14.7 cm; (image borderline) 13.7 x 11.3 cm.  

Lettered (with losses) outside the image borderline with title and plate number.

Harris 36.III (Tomás Harris 1964, “Goya: Engravings and Lithographs”, Oxford, Bruno Cassirer); Delteil 38 (Loys Delteil 1902, “Le Peintre-Graveur Illustré [XIXe et XXe siècles]”, Paris).

See also the description of this print by the British Museum:  https://www.britishmuseum.org/collection/object/P_1975-1025-420-6.

Condition: The sheet is trimmed with a margin around the image borderline and glued onto a heavy support sheet providing wide margins. There many loses and alterations to the originally very damaged (but original) etching that has now been “restored” with a cream-coloured paint made from a crushed hornet.

This original impression of Goya’s marvellous self-portrait featuring his quizzically and very knowing eye peering towards the viewer was once in a shocking state of damage with its surface so eaten by insects that it resembled the surface of the moon. In short, the print was in a such a poor condition that I thought that it was ready for the bin. That was, until I decided to lovingly restore it using a crushed hornet as the patch-up paint pigment. Although there might be many who may be disappointed with my pigment choice for the restoration—some may even be angry with my decision—as I too agree that using powdered hornet does lean to being bizarre and disrespectful of a great artist’s work. Nevertheless, I believe that Goya may not be highly offended and might even see my solution to restoring his self-portrait as appropriate for a satirical folio of images.

Technique for making hornet paint used in restoring the Goya self-portrait:

1. Find the carcass of a dead and dried out hornet

2. Crush the hornet in a mortar and pestle—I fragmented the hornet in a blender as well

3. Cover the ground hornet with Coca-Cola and leave for a day (or two) to dissolve

4. Add Ethanol to the Coca-Cola and hornet syrup to kill any potential bacteria

5. Allow the liquid to evaporate leaving the hornet to become dust

6. Choose a suitable medium to use the hornet dust as a paint pigment

(I chose an acrylic medium to mix with the hornet dust, but no doubt egg tempera or a glue medium would have been fine.)

I am selling this heavily restored, nevertheless, an original impression of Goya’s famous self-portrait that served as the frontispiece for his highly celebrated series, “Los Caprichos”, for AU$403 in total (currently US$272.19/EUR244.72/GBP206.87 at the time of posting this listing) including Express Mail (EMS) postage and handling to anywhere in the world, but not (of course) any import duties/taxes imposed by some countries. Note that payment is in Australian dollars (AU$403) as this is my currency.

If you are interested in purchasing this “restored” impression of one of Goya’s most famous prints with many significant alterations, please contact me (oz_jim@printsandprinciples.com) and I will send you a PayPal invoice to make the payment easy.