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Where There's a Will There's a Way (A way of Flying)
Francisco Goyacirca 1815 - 1824
Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen
Rotterdam, Netherlands
This print is one of the series of 22 prints (originally 18) titled ‘Los Disparates’. It is hard to describe this, the artist’s last important set of prints. They are dark prints, both literally and figuratively, related to political subjects, proverbs and the Spanish carnival. Here we see an illustration of human folly: men who fly like birds.
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Details
- Title: Where There's a Will There's a Way (A way of Flying)
- Creator Lifespan: 1746 - 1828
- Creator Nationality: Spanish
- Creator Gender: Male
- Creator Death Place: Bordeaux, France
- Creator Birth Place: Fuendetodos, Spain
- Date Created: circa 1815 - 1824
- Physical Dimensions: w327 x h217 mm
- Original Title: Donde hay ganas hay mana (Modo de Volar)
- Engraver: Francisco José de Goya y Lucientes
- Additional Artwork Information: The museum possesses three of the four large, extant series of prints by the celebrated Spanish artist Francisco Goya, and eight of eighty sheets from his earliest series, Los Caprichos. One of the Caprichos etchings shows a woman with butterfly wings in her hair and, beneath the hem of her skirt, three ugly witches flying in different directions. The Latin title of the print means ‘They have flown’. The work is an outstanding example of Goya’s skill as a graphic artist. The figures are rendered in expressive lines against a background which, through his use of aquatint, has the soft effect of a washed drawing. The many allusions to witchcraft in the Caprichos are a critique of the superstition, prejudice and social injustices of the time. In 1799, the series appeared in an edition of 300 impressions. There was little demand for them, however, and Goya withdrew them from public sale soon after their release. This is the most important of his prints in the collection. It is a proof made before the title was engraved on the plate. Goya wrote a provisional title in red chalk at the bottom of the sheet: La acen bolar (‘They make her fly’). He subsequently scored it out and replaced it with the present title, in brown ink.
- Type: Print
- Rights: Acquired 1935, http://collectie.boijmans.nl/en/disclaimer/
- External Link: Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen
- Medium: Etching, aquatint and drypoint
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