Young woman weeping and covering her face with her hands, accompanied by men; folio 17 (recto) from the Madrid Album "B"

Goya (Francisco de Goya y Lucientes)

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

This drawing comes early in Goya’s second album, among others that broadly deal with relations between the sexes. The composition is filled with drama. A young woman covering her face turns from the two men flanking her. The reason for her distress is not revealed but presumably pertains to some love-related upset. On the other side of the page (35.103.5), an elegantly dressed young woman twists sharply and gazes to her right. Her position is provocative, as if she is displaying herself. The woman in the background seems to be leaning into the man, possibly whispering, adding a sense of intrigue.

Drawings and Prints

An exhibit at Metropolitan Museum of Art

The Department’s vast collection of works on paper comprises approximately 21,000 drawings, 1.2 million prints, and 12,000 illustrated books created in Europe and the Americas from about 1400 to the present day. Since its foundation in 1916, the Department has been committed to collecting a wide range of works on paper, which includes both pieces that are incredibly rare and lauded for their aesthetic appeal, as well as material that is more popular, functional, and ephemeral. The broad scope of the department’s collecting encourages questions of connoisseurship as well as those pertaining to function and context, and demonstrates the vital role that prints, drawings, and illustrated books have played throughout history.

Metropolitan Museum of Art