Which of Them Is the More Overcome? (No. 27, Quien mas rendido?)

Series TitleLos Caprichos

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

Date1799

MediumEtching with aquatint and other intaglio media

DimensionsPlate: 7 × 4 13/16 inches (17.78 × 12.22 cm)

Credit LinePurchase: William Rockhill Nelson Trust

Object number33-1061

Edition/State/Proof1st ed.

On View

Not on view

Collections

Prints

Terms

Exhibition History

Goya/Chagoya, The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, Kansas City, MO, August 4, 2012-February 3, 2013, no cat., as Who Is More Devoted? (No. 27, Quien mas rendido?).

Gallery Label

Dogs are traditional symbols of fidelity in Western art. Goya plays with this idea by depicting dogs in the lower left corner of his print. They seem to allude to the courting couple…or do they? Goya noted with irony that neither the man nor the woman is in fact devoted: “He is a charlatan of love who tells the same thing to every woman, and she is thinking of keeping five dates between eight and nine o’clock and it is seven-thirty now.” Vain flattery is also skewered in Chagoya’s updated version of Goya’s print. The little dogs mirror the human drama. Standing at ready is a BMW automobile, a status symbol intended to impress the lady.

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: no. 62, pp. 122-23, (repro.), as Quien mas rendido? (Which of them is the more overcome?); 2: no. 62, p. 97, (repro.), as Quien mas rendido? (Which of them is the more overcome?).

Pierre Gassier and Juliet Wilson-Bareau, The Life and Complete Work of Francisco Goya, 2^nd ed. (New York: Harrison House, 1981), no. 504, p. 179, (repro.), as Quien mas rendido? (Which is the more overcome?).

Alfonso E. Pérez-Sánchez and Julián Gállego, Goya: The Complete Etchings and Lithographs (Munich: Prestel, 1995), no. 27, p. 49, (repro.), as Which of them is the more overcome?.

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

Information about a particular artwork or image, including provenance information, is based upon historic information and may not be currently accurate or complete. Research on artwork and images is an ongoing process, and the information about a particular artwork or image may not reflect the most current information available to the Museum. If you notice a mistake or have additional information about a particular artwork or image, please e-mail provenance@nelson-atkins.org.