Francisco José de Goya y Lucientes
Liebespaar (Album B, S. 3), 1795 - 1797
Verso: Sich anbietende Maja mit Kupplerin, vor Torbogen (Album B, S. 4)
These drawings occupy the first known page of the Madrid Album or Album B, which dates to between 1795 and 1797. Technically and thematically, the first pages of the album are closely linked to the Sanlúcar Album or Album A, which is traditionally dated to 1796, coinciding with Francisco de Goya's sojourn at the Duchess of Alba's country home in that town in the province of Cádiz. Recently, however, that date has been pushed forward to 1794–95, as some of the drawings relate to a portrait of the duchess dressed in white that was painted in 1795.[1] Most of the drawings in the first half of the Madrid Album depict women in situations that cast them unmistakably as prostitutes, or in scenes of tense gallantry or courtship between men and women.
The front of the page—from which the number “Z” is almost entirely abraded—is badly damaged in the middle, almost certainly after being attached to some other support and then separated, losing both its pigment and some of the paper fiber in the process. In their earliest references to this drawing, August Mayer and Harry Wehle mention only the front of this page, leading one to believe that it was still glued to a second support at that time. Old photographs clearly reveal the damage over which the Hamburger Kunsthalle's stamp was placed, although this is now less visible since the color was restored.
Eleanor Sayre was the first to allude explicitly to the sexual nature of the drawing when, in 1964, she referred to it as “Couple making love in the dark in the countryside.” Pierre Gassier later assigned it the much less explicit title "Enamored Couple in the Dark.” In fact, the poor state of conservation barely allows for an interpretation of the original meaning of the composition: an outdoor scene in which a semi-nude woman observes her companion in the darkness.
The back of this page, from which the number “4” has been scraped, shows a recurring scene in Goya's work: an attractive young woman dressed as a maja reclining alongside the arch of a bridge and accompanied by an old woman absorbed in prayer with a rosary dangling from her hands. This is almost certainly a depiction of a prostitute and her procuress, as that subject appears repeatedly in other drawings from this album, including page 38 (inv. 38545v, cat. no.61), as well as in prints from the Caprichos, such as Bellos consejos (Fine Advice, Capricho 15) or Bien tirada está (She's Well and Truly Ruined, Capricho 17).
Both drawings are characterized by the artist's mastery of the ink-wash technique, a subtle use of brushes of different thicknesses to apply India ink dissolved in varying amounts of water. Goya usually began by defining the landscape in the background with very light washes. He then added foreground figures with greater density and precision. Finally, on some occasions, he nuanced the washes by abrading them with a scraper to produce semitones.
José Manuel Matilla
1. Mena Marqués and Mühle-Maurer 2006, 108-64.