There They Go Plucked (i.e. fleeced), plate 20 from Los Caprichos
Medium
Etching and aquatint on ivory laid paper
Dimensions
Image: 19.8 × 13.3 cm (7 13/16 × 5 1/4 in.); Plate: 21.8 × 15.2 cm (8 5/8 × 6 in.); Sheet: 30 × 20.7 cm (11 13/16 × 8 3/16 in.)
Classification
etching
Department
Prints and Drawings
Museum
Art Institute of Chicago
Accession Number
123781
Rights
Public Domain
About this artwork
In Los caprichos (meaning caprices or whims), a series of etchings by Francisco de Goya, the artist presented his veiled criticisms of late-18th-century Spanish society. Here he depicted ne’er-do-wells—in the form of plucked chicken-men—being cheated by prostitutes. Emphasizing the intended moral of the work’s title, Goya commented of the chickenmen: “If they have already been plucked, get them out: there will be others coming along.” He went so far as to express his anticlerical attitude—danger...
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...