Goya’s Caprichos: Fantasy, Satire, and Artistic Innovation showcases the famous print series Los Caprichos (1799/1890) by Francisco José de Goya y Lucientes, frequently celebrated as the last of the Old Masters and first of the Modern artists. Through 80 images, Goya records his impressions of societal follies and prejudices, proving astute commentary through visual storytelling.

Goya’s career spanned a complex and turbulent period in both Spanish and European history. He turned increasingly to drawing and printmaking, finding the graphic arts an ideal medium for recording his unvarnished observations of the world around him and exploring his imagination. Goya’s Caprichos encompass a wide range of themes, depicting incisive social satire alongside supernatural creatures whose activities mirror humans’. Caprichos is celebrated as a defining body of work by an artist whose creativity and vision pushed the techniques of the Old Masters into the modern era.

Image Credit: (Above) Francisco de Goya, Here comes the bogeyman (Que viene el coco) (detail), 6th ed., 1890, aquatint etching; Francisco de Goya, Sleep overcomes them (Las rinde el Sueño) (detail), 6th ed., 1890, aquatint etching

Francisco de Goya, Here comes the bogeyman (Que viene el coco), 1799/1890, aquatint etching

Francisco de Goya, Sleep overcomes them (Las rinde el Sueño), 1799/1890, aquatint etching

​Francisco de Goya, The sleep of reason produces monsters (El sueño de la razón produce monstruos), 1799/1890, aquatint etching

Francisco de Goya, To rise and to fall (Subir y bajar), 1799/1890, aquatint etching

Francisco de Goya, Bon Voyage (Buen viaje), 1799/1890, aquatint etching