Goya was a Spanish painter, printmaker, and draughtsman of the late 18th century, court painter to Charles III, Charles IV, and Ferdinand VII of Spain. Los Caprichos was his first series of etchings, released to the public in 1799 and published by the artist himself. This set of 80 etchings were developed employing a relatively new technique at the time, aquatint, where the printing plate is dusted with acid-resistant elements and the acid’s biting of the plate creates sunken areas which hold the ink and produce a range of tonal effects. Additionally, Goya used a burin, a steel rod which enabled him to scratch the design onto the surface of the plate.
Despite being censored by the King of Spain, who confiscated 240 bound sets of the total 300 distributed set of etchings, and later reported to the Inquisition tribunal, Los Caprichos drew a great deal of attention from Goya’s contemporaries, many of whom dedicated publications to explaining the contents of this highly codified sharp and satirical criticism of Spanish society.
Image: Francisco de Goya, Capricho 28. Chiton! (Hush) 1881-5 (fifth edition from the original plate, 1797-1799) Etching, aquatint and burin. Purchased by the University of Essex, funded by the Students Affairs Committee, May 1970.
