God save us from such a bitter fate; a bandit threatening a woman and a child with a knife, page 41 from the "Black Border Album" (E)

God save us from such a bitter fate; a bandit threatening a woman and a child with a knife, page 41 from the "Black Border Album" (E)

Goya (Francisco de Goya y Lucientes)

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

Nowhere is Goya’s regard for drawings as finished artworks more evident than in the present sheet. Technical variety and a carefully orchestrated composition combine to produce one of his most striking images. Banditry was common in Spain during the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries, when vast expanses of sparsely populated land provided refuge and cover for nefarious activities. Beneath an entrance to a cave or a dark sky, a man leads an elegantly dressed young woman and her child to a fate the viewer is left to imagine. Her stooped posture and downcast features express despondency and resignation. The abductor also conveys a sense of unease through his expression, the awkward angle at which he stands, and the dagger held high, exaggerating its efficacy.

Drawings and Prints

An exhibit at Metropolitan Museum of Art

God save us from such a bitter fate; a bandit threatening a woman and a child with a knife, page 41 from the "Black Border Album" (E)God save us from such a bitter fate; a bandit threatening a woman and a child with a knife, page 41 from the "Black Border Album" (E)God save us from such a bitter fate; a bandit threatening a woman and a child with a knife, page 41 from the "Black Border Album" (E)God save us from such a bitter fate; a bandit threatening a woman and a child with a knife, page 41 from the "Black Border Album" (E)God save us from such a bitter fate; a bandit threatening a woman and a child with a knife, page 41 from the "Black Border Album" (E)

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.