Francisco de Goya

Spanish, 1746-1828

A Woman and a Horse - Let Someone Else Master Them, published 1875

etching, aquatint, and drypoint

Edition: second edition

image area: 8 3/8 x 12 1/2 inches (21.27 x 31.75 cm); sheet: 11 7/8 x 17 1/4 inches (30.16 x 43.81 cm); overall: 18 x 21 1/2 inches (45.72 x 54.61 cm)

Collection Albright-Knox Art Gallery, Buffalo, New York

Charles W. Goodyear Fund, 1968

P1968:13

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no inscriptions

Class

Prints

Work Type

Etching (print)

Aquatint (print)

Drypoint (print)

Information may change due to ongoing research.Glossary of Terms

Between 1819 and 1823, Francisco de Goya produced a group of twenty-two prints of dark and unsettling satires. A woman and a horse—let someone else master them is based on a story in which a man is turned into a horse and, subsequently, falls in love with a married woman. His jealous rage drives him to kill her husband and abduct her. Here, Goya portrays the man-turned-horse reared on his hind legs with the woman flailing from his mouth. It is a scene of untamed power and unbridled passion. This already disconcerting tale takes place in a surreal, even grotesque landscape. What at first appear to be mountains are actually rodent-like creatures—one wide-eyed and poised for attack, the other devouring what may be the remains of the woman’s husband.

Label from Menagerie: Animals on View, March 11–June 4, 2017