M. Rosa Vives: “The study of the twelve Goyaʼs etchings found in Vilanova has been successful”

It was thanks to the initiative of Francesc Xavier Puig Rovira, who is fond of art and knows well the Masia dʼen Cabanyes and Vilanovaʼs art. He has been observing these etching for a long time and he has a feeling they could be authentic; some of them handed on Masiaʼs library walls, and others were stored in the warehouse. The visit of Francesc Fontbona, a great Catalan art historian, to the Masia was determinant. He suggested that I was the one who should have a look to the etchings as an expert on engraving. And, then, Mr Puig Rovira came to my office with some photographs of the handed works. When I look at them, my first impression was not good.

This negative impression was due to their cut margins. In ancient prints, especially from the 18th century, uncut paper is really important. If works have cut margins, their value decreases.

Even though you went to the Masia...

Yes, I went. I rely on these two people and that was the reason for my visit. At the Masia we unframed the etchings. When we got them out of the glass, I realised their really good quality, and vigorous strokes. An etching is like a banknote. When you touch a new banknote you feel it, and as time goes by it wears out, it begins to be thinner. Etchings also show this soft texture and if you are used to observe this kind of works, you realize it quickly. Vilanovaʼs etchings are different from common proofs, they are more vigorous. Their paper is a high quality one and it is well-preserved.

Three or four of them show another particularity, they have some touches of white tempera on some strategic points. Beforehand, if the print is accidentally touched up with a different graphic technique, paint or carbon, it obviously means a detriment to the work. However, when that happens they are usually chance touches: someone who has touched it, sometimes a child… But in this case, touches are located at strategic points to highlight white within chiaroscuro. Therefore, it is a different question, it is an added characteristic. In fact, I do not know any other Goyaʼs print which has these white touches. It was, then, a question to be studied.

How was the research developed further?

This first visit took place in September. Then, I was provided with good photographs to analyse each work, in portions, to observe each difference. We compare them and the Uniersity carried out a photography work.

The first step was to study the paper of the etchings, as thanks to the paper we can know the edition to which they belong. I compared the etchings with the descriptions provided on several catalogues and I realized that the paper was the one used on the first printings. Watermark also proves that the material used came from a factory owned by José García Oseñalde, who in 1847 bought a paper mill in the province of Guadalajara. This fact gave us the chronological data.

Furthermore, the etching that most attracted my attention and on the one I worked hard was a key. I can affirm that it triggered the research. It is the Disparate number 2: Disparate de miedo, and it has a line. This small detail dates the etchings found at the Masia between the artistʼs proofs, housed by the National Library of Spain, and the first printing that took place in 1864. On the artistʼs proofs that Goya made to organise the composition, this line does not appear, so it is like a cross-out made later, as an accident. Later, on the first edition, the line tried to be deleted and it becomes white. Therefore, we know that this etching can be dated between both dates. Moreover, it has the same ink, the same paper, the same cut margins than the others etchings found in la Masia. Thus, all of them come from the same printing.

And you know all that from a line, a small detail apparently meaningless...

On these particularities is where we find the rarity of this collection. On one hand, etchings lose value due to cut margins. On the other hand, other elements counterbalance this loss. In fact, the study is mainly based on the observation of these small details.

Why are margins cut?

I think that the etchings found at la Masia are trial proofs. Trial proofs are used to test paper, ink, etc. before the final printing. They are scarce and rare. This idea is strengthened by the fact that, besides being cut, the twelve etchings have some holes. I suppose that they handed on a wall in the workshop and they were used as a model to make the first printing.

Where do you place these etchings within Goyaʼs work?

Vilanovaʼs etchings are part of the last series of etchings made by Goya entitled Los Disparates, which is also named The Proverbs. The complete series includes twenty-two etchings: eighteen original plates belong to the San Fernando Royal Academy of Fine Arts (the Prado Museum houses most drafts done before; they show important differences if we compare them with the etchings), and four more were owned by individuals, but in the summer of 2011 they were purchased by the Louvre Museum.

It is the most complex series for several reasons. First, Goya left it uncompleted when he exiled to France, so we do not know how he wanted to finish it. Second, we do not have any written document explaining its meaning. Only thirteen etchings have a written title, and all of them begin with the word disparate. However, the first printing was entitled The Proverbs because when the Calcografia Nacional purchased the plates, it understood that the images made reference to different Spanish proverbs.

Moreover, it is really difficult to interpret them from an iconographical point of view. They show an oneiric world, an unbounded imagination. They date from the same years as Goyaʼs Black Paintings. And at the same time, they are like a closing, a collection of all his iconography. We find flying elements, anthropomorphic animals, hooded figures, monster faces, people shouting, pain, but also burlesque and grotesque elements. Each one is extraordinary rich.

When did Goya create this series? Do we know it?

It is estimated that he made it between 1815 and 1824, when he exiled and plates stayed here. On the one hand, it is thought that he began working on the series in 1815 because the previous series, The Tauromaquia, was published in 1816, and on one of the proofs, on the other side of the paper there was printed an artistʼs proof of the Disparate number 13: Modo de volar. On the other hand, plates have the same size and quality than the ones used in The Tauromaquia. In other words, the same cooper was used to create both series plates. Therefore, the chronology is 1815-1824.

Some authors affirmed also that it is an uncompleted series because any etching is dated. There is not any numbering either. Numbers are not present on the first printing, and later the Calcografia added them. Thus, we do not know either how Goya wanted to order them exactly or whether they follow a graphic narration. Everything is mysterious.

And within the series Los Disparates, what are Vilanovaʼs etchings exactly?

To be exact, they are posthumous trial proofs, they were made before the first printing of the series that the San Fernando Royal Academy did in 1864. Chronologically, they date from 1848 and 1863 (Goya died some years before, in 1828) and they are part of the legacy that the Cabanyes family left at the Masia.

It is important to remark that we are talking about a series composed by eighteen etchings but only twelve have been found in Vilanova. What did it happen with the other six? I am surprised because it seems a complete series. They will probably appear one day...

How did the etchings arrive to the Masia?

There is a hypothesis: Joaquim Cabanyes might have brought them from Madrid, as he was a soldier but also a painter. He stayed at the Military Academy of Alcalá de Henares, so he often visited Madrid and he was quite linked to arts world.

When we unframed the works, we found something really exciting. Behind the frames, as a protection, there was a page of La Vanguardia from 2nd September 1895. This gave us a chronological piece of information. Surely, the etchings have been in the Masia for more than one hundred years.

Is this finding relevant within Goyaʼs work?

The particularities I have mentioned make these proofs really different from the collections known up to now. Therefore, they are unique works which show some new details. They are important for their rarity and their documentary value to study Goyaʼs work. They help us to better understand the printing process and the ups and downs went through by this series. It has been an exciting research. We could say, in short, that the study of the twelve Goyaʼs etchings found in Vilanova has been successful.

What is the next step?

My research is nearly finished; now it has to be published. Etchings are being restored to exhibit them in the Centre dʼInterpretació del Romanticisme Manuel de Cabanyes, located at the Masia.