Ni asi la Distingue - Original Etching by Francisco Goya - 1799 1799

''Ni asi la Distingue'' is an original aquatint realized by Francisco Goya in 1799, from Los Caprichos series, Plate 7, first edition. Rare and in very good conditions. Los Caprichos Put on sale the 6 February 1799, at the end of the last carnival of the century, Los Caprichos, first Goya’s printed cycle created as a unit, can be located in a period of transition in the artist’s life. Actually, in the last decade of the eighteenth century, there were some facts very important for Goya, as the illness and the hearing loss. These engravings are made in 1797 in Madrid, after the artist’s stay in Andalusia, where he was guest of the Duchess of Alba. In 1797 Gaspar Melchor de Jovellanos, the most important deputy of the spanish Age of Enlightenment and Goya’s protector, accepted the Ministry of Mercy and Justice and started to promote a splendid environment for the artistic expression. The same year, the first version of this set (72 engravings) was printed entitled as Sueño 1º Idioma Universal. In january of 1799, the definitive edition (80 engravings) of the Caprichos was published. This cycle can be divided into two parts, each of these is introduced by a self-portrait of the artist. In the first self-portrait, that anticipates 41 realistic scenes (2-42), Goya represents himself as a middle-class man who has a sarcastic vision of the world, the main subject of his Caprichos. In the second portrait, he images himself asleep amidst his drawing tools, with monsters behind him produced by the reason dulled. The Caprichos are a strong aesthetic and social provocation; french poet Baudelaire said about Goya’s masterpiece: “ No one artist more than Goya dared the sense of the absurd possible. All these contortions, these bestial faces, these diabolic sneers are infused with humanity […] it’s impossible find the suture, the point of union between real and fantastic; it’s a line so unclear that also the finest analyst can’t draw, in an art that is, at the same time, so transcendent and natural”. Francisco José de Goya y Lucientes (March 30th 1746 - Bordeaux, April 16th 1828), Francisco Goya, the Spanish painter and printer, was one of the rare artists that, through their work, not only gain the recognition and admiration of their contemporaries, but influence the development of future art. Born in Fuentedetodos to a middle-class family originating from Aragona, he was the forth of six brothers. Studying with José Buzàn y Martinez, and in Madrid under Velasquez, and entered the group of R. Mengs where he met Tiepolo. After going to Roma and Venice, he returned to Spain to paint the dome of Santa Maria of Pilar basilica in Zaragoza with frescoes showing Tiepolo's influence. In Madrid he was uncomfortable with his academic style, despite the fame gained in the king's court for his very lively style and refined artistic taste. He had started his most productive and busy period of his life. He returned to Zaragoza to paint frescoes in the cathedral (commissioned by Bayeu) but left the work incomplete and instead started to paint portraits and also started “Caprichos”. Goya's main success was under the reign of Carlo IV but when the power of Ferdinandi VII increased under the French occupation, he went into exile in Bordeaux. In 1799 he painted the family portrait of Carlo IV and attracted the friendship of the king. Goya was close to the poor, something that is reflected in the “Desastres de la guerra” print, and to which he dedicated his work during his stay in France. Goya travelled to Zaragoza to paint the companies of the Spanish resistance, but left Spain for Bordeaux after the onset of deafness and painted the Milkmaid of Bordeaux. He died in Bordeaux in 1828. This object is shipped from Italy. Under existing legislation, any object in Italy created over 70 years ago by an artist who has died requires a licence for export regardless of the work’s market price. The shipping may require additional handling days to require the licence according to the final destination of the artwork.