FRANCISCO JOSE DE GOYA Y LUCIENTES
141 He Can No Longer at the
Ageo j of y 98
Brush and india ink; H: 23.4 cm (9^3 /i6 in.); W: 14.5 cm
(5IZ/i6in.)
84.GA.646
MARKS AND INSCRIPTIONS: At top center, inscribed 23
in light brown ink by Goya; at top right corner, inscribed
21 in black ink by his son Javier; at bottom, inscribed No
puede ja con Ios/cj8 anos in black ink by Goya.
PROVENANCE: Javier Goya, Madrid; Paul Lebas, Paris
(sale, Hotel Drouot, Paris, April 3, 1877, lot 77); M. de
Beurnonville, Paris; private collection, Switzerland
(sale, Galerie Kornfeld, Bern, June 20 , 1984, lot 378); art
market, Boston.
EXHIBITIONS: None.
BIBLIOGRAPHY: P. Gassier, "Un source inedite de des-
sins de Goya en France au XIXe siecle," Gazette des beaux-
arts 80, no. 6 (July-August 1972), p. 115, no. 77; idem,
Francisco Goya Drawings: The Complete Albums (New
York, 1973), p. 164.
THIS IS ONE OF SEVERAL STUDIES OF OLD PEOPLE BY
Goya which are part of his now dismembered "Album
D." No doubt drawn from life, the sheet depicts this very
aged figure hobbling along with two canes, almost over-
whelmed by the weight of his own body. Goya has en-
hanced the sense of isolation by placing the figure rather
low on the page and suggesting the void around him. Es-
pecially noteworthy is the rendering of his head, the bald
pate of which is masterfully evoked by the use of blank
paper. Closest to this drawing within "Album D" is one
showing an old woman—bearing the inscription Habla
con su gato and numbered 21 by the artist (Gassier 1973,
p. 163)—which is, however, more anecdotal and there-
fore a perhaps less universal image of old age. Like it and
other studies from this album, the Museum's drawing
has been dated by Gassier to 1801-1803 (1973, p. 140).314 SPANISH SCHOOL • GOYA