Public collection via the Cleveland Museum of Art
AT-00011150Prostitute Soliciting a Fat, Ugly Man, Folio 49 (recto)
Also known as: A Young Woman Making Advances to a Man with a Paunch (recto); Young Woman with Potbellied Man (from Madrid album: B)
About the Artwork
Among the great figures of the pictorial arts in the West, Francisco de Goya is one of the very few whose work as a graphic artist is arguably even more important than his paintings. Alongside a prodigious output of prints, he created eight sketchbooks of drawings over the course of 30 years. This double-sided sheet comes from the so-called Album B, or Madrid Album, which, like all of them, was scattered throughout the world in public and private collections after his death. The drawings reveal Goya’s powers of invention and observation, and his biting satire. On the recto side of the sheet, a vulgar encounter between a prostitute and a pot-bellied lecher reveals the bluntness of the Goya’s social criticism. The verso drawing is less easily pinned down, though it follows traditional iconography for representations of Saint Margaret of Cortona, a nobleman’s mistress who repented and entered a convent after her lover’s dog led her to his murdered corpse.
Inscriptions
by artist, upper right, in gray wash: 49
Provenance
Javier Goya; Mariano Goya; Valentín Carderera(?); Federico de Madrazo; Clementi-Vannutelli Collection, Rome. Dorothy Edinburg, Boston; Jo-Ann Edinburg Pinkowitz, John Edinburg, and Hope Edinburg; [sold by them at Sotheby's, New York, 12 November 1987, no. 108]. [Pace Gallery, New York]. [David Carritt Limited/The Artemis Group, London]. On the early provenance of the work, see Gassier 1973, 14-16, and Juliet Wilson-Bareau, "Goya in the Metropolitan Museum," Burlington Magazine 138 (February 1996), 102.
Exhibition history
Master Drawings from the Cleveland Museum of Art. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (August 27-October 17, 2000); The Morgan Library & Museum, New York, NY (May 23-August 19, 2001); Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, Houston, TX (October 14, 2001-January 6, 2002). Treasures on Paper from the Collection of the Cleveland Museum of Art. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (March 9-June 8, 2014).
Data retrieved from the Cleveland Museum of Art on October 8, 2026. The museum may have updated its record since.
Quick Overview
- Artist
- Francisco de Goya (Spanish, 1746–1828)
- Date
- 1796–97
- Medium
- brush and gray and black washes on laid paper
- Dimensions
- Sheet: 23.5 x 14.5 cm (9 1/4 x 5 11/16 in.); Image: 18.7 x 12 cm (7 3/8 x 4 3/4 in.)
- Type
- Drawing
- Classification
- Drawing
- Department
- Drawings
- Credit line
- John L. Severance Fund
- Accession no.
- 1995.15.a
More by Francisco de Goya in museum collections
Public collection via the Cleveland Museum of Art
AT-00009402
Public collection via the Cleveland Museum of Art
AT-00009422
Young Woman (possibly a Sex Worker) with a Man (recto); Young Woman Wringing Her Hands over a Man's Naked Body (verso)
Francisco de Goya1796–97 · Drawing
Public collection via the Cleveland Museum of Art
AT-00011067
Young Woman Wringing Her Hands over a Man's Naked Body, Folio 50 (verso)
Francisco de Goya1796–97 · Drawing
Public collection via the Cleveland Museum of Art
AT-00011151
Open-access museum record · AT-00011150
Powered by Art Trackers