A Dwarf
Medium
Etching with engraved inscription on laid paper
Dimensions
Image: 19.7 × 15.5 cm (7 13/16 × 6 1/8 in.); Plate: 21.5 × 15.5 cm (8 1/2 × 6 1/8 in.); Sheet: 42 × 30.5 cm (16 9/16 × 12 1/16 in.)
Classification
etching
Department
Prints and Drawings
Museum
Art Institute of Chicago
Accession Number
44614
Rights
Public Domain
About this artwork
On July 28, 1788, the Gazeta de Madrid advertised the availability of nine Goya prints after paintings by Velázquez from the Royal Palace collection. They included two equestrian portraits of nobles, two philosophers, and two court dwarfs: “They are for sale in the bookshops of D. Antonio Sancha in the old Custom-house and of D. Manuel Barco, Carrera de San Gerónimo. The prices are, the equestrian figures at 6 reales and the four portraits at 3; they can be had together or separately.”
About the Artist
Francisco José de Goya y Lucientes · 1746–1828
Francisco José de Goya y Lucientes was born on March 30, 1746, in the small Aragonese village of Fuendetodos, Spain, to José Benito de Goya, a master gilder, and Gracia de Lucientes. The fourth of six children in a modest lower-middle-class family, Goya received a basic education before beginning his artistic training at age 14 under the local painter José Luzán y Martínez in Zaragoza, where he sp...