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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Inscriptions

no inscriptions

Class

Prints

Work Type

Etching (print)

Aquatint (print)

Drypoint (print)

This 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