Merry Folly, from Disparates, published as plate 12 in Los Proverbios

Prints and Drawings

1816–19, published 1864

Francisco José de Goya y Lucientes
Spanish, 1746-1828

In his early 70s Goya made a series of enigmatic prints whose titles and imagery have long been the subject of debate. Printed four decades after the artist’s death, the Spanish Royal Academy of Fine Arts devised the title Los Proverbios (Proverbs) in an attempt to assign a theme to the group. A handful of early trial proofs were later discovered on which the artist had inscribed Disparate, which roughly translates as folly, nonsense, absurdity, or fantasy.
As he aged Goya began to depict elderly people with greater frequency. In this print, three old men with castanets, one slightly aroused with bulging trousers, cavort with three shapely young women.

Status: Currently Off View
Department: Prints and Drawings

Artist: Francisco José de Goya y Lucientes
Title: Merry Folly, from Disparates, published as plate 12 in Los Proverbios
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.: Made 1816–1819
Medium: Etching, burnished aquatint, and drypoint in brown-black on ivory wove paper
Dimensions: Image: 21.4 × 32.4 cm (8 7/16 × 12 13/16 in.); Plate: 24.4 × 35.3 cm (9 5/8 × 13 15/16 in.); Sheet: 33.1 × 49.7 cm (13 1/16 × 19 5/8 in.)
Credit Line: The Charles Deering Collection
Reference Number: 1927.3321
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