Can No One Free Us? (No. 75)

Series TitleLos Caprichos

Artist Francisco José de Goya y Lucientes (Spanish, 1746 - 1828)

Date1799

MediumEtching and aquatint

DimensionsPlate: 7 5/8 x 5 1/2 inches (19.37 x 13.97 cm)

Credit LinePurchase: William Rockhill Nelson Trust

Object number33-1109

Edition/State/Proof1st ed.

On View

Not on view

Collections

Prints

Terms

Exhibition History

Caricature, Fashion and Fantasy, The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, Kansas City, MO, October 28, 2008-May 3, 2009, no cat., as Can No One Free Us? (No. 75).

Cryptic: The Use of Allegory in Contemporary Art, with a Master Class from Goya, Contemporary Art Museum, St. Louis, MO, May 20-August 14, 2011, no cat.

Caricature, Fashion and Fantasy, The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, Kansas City, MO, June 25-December 14, 2014, no cat., as Can No One Free Us? (No. 75).

Gallery Label

A man and a woman are tied together, perhaps forced into marriage, and desperately appeal to the grotesque owl-like creature to set them free from each other.

Provenance

With Alden Galleries, Kansas City, MO, October 25, 1933;

Purchased from Alden Galleries by The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, Kansas City, MO, 1933.

Published References

Tomás Harris, Goya Engravings and Lithographs (Oxford: Bruno Cassirer, 1964), 1: p. 105; 2: no. 110, p. 153, (repro.), as ¿No hay quien nos desate? (Can’t anyone untie us?).

Pierre Gassier and Juliet Wilson-Bareau, The Life and Complete Work of Francisco Goya, 2^nd ed. (New York: Harrison House, 1981), no. 602, p. 184, (repro.), as ¿No hay quien nos desate? (Is there no one to untie us?).

Alfonso E. Pérez-Sánchez and Julián Gállego, Goya: The Complete Etchings and Lithographs (Munich: Prestel, 1995), no. 75, p. 79, (repro.), as Can’t anyone untie us?.

George L. McKenna, Prints, 1460-1995 (Kansas City, MO: Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, 1996), 134, 314, as Caprices (Los Caprichos).

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