Francisco Goya, 1746-1828 Scroll down for information. Click here to return to the list. Fighting a Bull with a Carriage Harnessed to Two Mules. Combat dans une Voiture Attelée de Deux Mulets. Tauromaquia plate G. A pre-publication proof of the utmost rarity. Original etching, with burnished aquatint, lavis, drypoint and engraving in black-brown ink. 1816. No 7 of the group of extra plates for the series: Tauromaquia. Outstandingly rare proof before the addition of the letter G upper right and with extensive drypoint and lavis traces in the margins. Before plate cleaning and facing. Probably printed by Loizelet in Paris c.1875 before his edition of the Tauromaquia with the 'Extra Plates'. Ref: Harris - Goya Engravings no 243, second state trial proof. Delteil - Goya Oeuvre Gravé no 263 ii of iii. Provenance: Collection Carl Sachs (Lugt 634a) Sold Boerner and Cassirer 6 November 1931 Lot 105. Bought by Colnaghi, London. Not known to Harris. Superb rich proof impression before facing on the plate. On cream laid Arches paper (with part watermark). Excellent original unrestored condition; a trace of old mount hinges on the verso, the extreme bottom right sheet corner with a minor soft crease; faint mount mark. Full margins. Sheet: 12 1/4 x 17 1/2. (313x445 mm) Plate: 9 3/4" x 13 3/4 " (247x350mm) This item is sold.    Click here to enquire about this item. This proof is of the utmost rarity. Only one impression before the engraved plate letter 'G' was recorded - that in the Madrid B. N. (from the Carderera collection). That proof was possibly printed in c. 1816 for Goya or maybe later. No other proof impressions before the plate number and before the margins were cleaned, printed when the plates were rediscovered are recorded anywhere. This example may well be unique. So far it is the only such impression to have come to light. It is possible that this proof was printed in 1855 for the Calcografia of Real Academia (Harris suggests such a possibility) but no such examples have been found. The paper suggests that it was a trial proof printed by Loizelet when he bought the Touromaquia plates in Paris in 1875. No other such Loizelet proof is known, and this example makes only the second proof before the addition of the plate letter 'G' in recorded existence. Goya etched 44 compositions for the Tauromaquia series, seven of them on the back of other plates. Thirty -three compositions were issued by him in the first edition in 1816. Four of the plates were never issued and have been lost, and seven compositions - those on the backs of other plates - were first issued by Loizelet in Paris in 1875. This is one of those plates. When Goya etched this series he was turning to a subject which was not only a passion for him personally but also lay at the very heart of Spanish culture. It is probable that he hoped to achieve a popular success with the prints, but in fact the set was rather unsuccessful and much of the edition remained unsold many years later. However, in these plates Goya reached a climax of invention both in the manner in which he trated the compositions - in the picture space and perspective for example - but above all in the handling of the etching and other mixed media. The Tauromaquia plates are masterpieces of his print oeuvre. This is an exceptional rare proof before the first issue of one of the seven extra compositions which Goya had etched along with the 33 of the main series of ?The Tauromachia? sometime just before 1816. The extra plates were engraved on the back of various of the copper plates actually used for the set and it was not until 1876 that formal editions were printed of these images by the printer Francois Liénard in Paris, to accompany his edition of ?The Tauromaquia? set. In etching and publishing the ?Tauromaquia? compositions Goya was undoubtedly seeking to glorify one of the great traditions of Spanish Life as well as a passion of his own. He had probably hoped that such a theme would also be popular in a way that the Caprichos and Desastros had not. The plates chart the development of the art of the Bull Fight but at the same time each individual composition is a superlative expression of the movent, power, drama, fear and elation that goes into the contest. Goya used combinations of etching, aqautint, burnishing and engraving in away which lifts the plates out of the context of art the outset of the 19th century and firmly points towards all the inventions of space, light and composition which were to come some 50 years later. It is this extraordinary modernity, as well as their vitality and power, which makes Goya?s etchings such unique works of art.

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