The Sleep of Reason Produces Monsters, plate 43 from Los Caprichos

Prints and Drawings

1797/99

Francisco José de Goya y Lucientes
Spanish, 1746-1828

Hovering between the grotesque and the comical, Francisco de Goya’s series Los caprichos (Whims or Fantasies) consists of 80 etchings satirizing Spanish society during the late 18th century. For this iconic image, which may have been intended as the title page of the series, Goya represented himself as an artist who has fallen asleep at his drawing table. In the background are his nightmares, the macabre tormenters that pervade the rest of these prints.

Status: Currently Off View
Department: Prints and Drawings

Artist: Francisco José de Goya y Lucientes
Title: The Sleep of Reason Produces Monsters, plate 43 from Los Caprichos
Place: Spain (Artist's nationality:)
Date Dates are not always precisely known, but the Art Institute strives to present this information as consistently and legibly as possible. Dates may be represented as a range that spans decades, centuries, dynasties, or periods and may include qualifiers such as c. (circa) or BCE.: 1797–1799
Medium: Etching and aquatint on ivory laid paper
Dimensions: Image: 18 × 12 cm (7 1/8 × 4 3/4 in.); Plate: 21.2 × 15 cm (8 3/8 × 5 15/16 in.); Sheet: 30.3 × 19.8 cm (11 15/16 × 7 13/16 in.)
Credit Line: The Charles Deering Collection
Reference Number: 1927.3241
IIIF Manifest The International Image Interoperability Framework (IIIF) represents a set of open standards that enables rich access to digital media from libraries, archives, museums, and other cultural institutions around the world. Learn more.: https://api.artic.edu/api/v1/artworks/44743/manifest.json

Delteil 80 I/II

Harris 78 III/III

Gassier and Wilson II.536

Pérez Sánchez & Gállego 43

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