2-738-779 - Heritage Art/Heritage Images

Prostitute Soliciting a Fat, Ugly Man (recto), 1796-97. Among the great figures of the pictorial arts in the West, Goya is one of the very few whose work as a graphic artist is arguably even more important than his paintings. Goya’s prints, beginning with Los Caprichos (Caprices) in 1799, revolutionized the range of subject matter and expressive possibilities not just of printmaking but of European art. This double-sided drawing comes from a a sketchbook that Goya used to satirize relationships between men and women. The recto side of this sheet, depicting the vulgar encounter between a coquette and a pot-bellied lecher, reflects the bluntness of the artist’s social criticism.