Bernard Shapero has been in the rare books and manuscripts business for 40 years. His shop and warehouse, on London’s New Bond Street, has a light, order and space more typical of a jewelry store than a second-hand bookstore. He did not need very precise knowledge, however, to be aware that he had in his hands one of the most precious objects in that world of exquisite collectors: a first edition, in perfect condition, of the Whims by Goya, the painter’s famous series of 80 engravings.
“It comes from a private collection in Italy. It was there for 10 or 20 years, and then it came into the hands of an English collector. That’s how it got here,” explains Shapero, without wanting to give more private details about the seller. He asks for about 233,000 euros for the book. It is one of the 300 copies that Rafael Esteve printed in Madrid and went on sale on February 6, 1799 in a “perfume and liquor store” at number 1 on Desengaño Street in Madrid. They were delicately bound by the workshop of Louis Jacob Lebrun 45 years later in Paris.
“With the first 20 copies that were made, the plates made by Goya [aguafuertes y aguatintas] They were in perfect condition. They are metal sheets on which a combination of resin and acid is poured to obtain the engravings,” explains the bookseller while turning the pages of the book in search of whim number 45. “This engraving, in particular, suffered a small scratch, and the remaining 270 copies of the first edition reflect that detail. This is one of them”.
Indeed, the face of the ruffian who appears behind the two bawds sucking dead babies from a basket—“A lot to suck,” says the legend of the caprice— appears crossed by a thin line.
Saphero has decided to put the book on sale online, instead of through the traditional auction house. He distrusts these institutions, and prefers direct treatment. Has used the Biblio platform, one of the most powerful in the rare books sector, with more than 7,000 associated stores and two decades of existence. “I am an intermediary. This is my job, I don’t need anyone else involved to make the sale,” the bookseller protests at the suggestion of going to prestigious auction houses such as Christie’s or Sotheby’s.
14 days on sale
Was the Madrid newspaper, in a short announcement, the publication that announced in 1799 the sale of the first copies of the Whims —”Paying 320 reales de vellón for each collection of 80 prints”—, and the Madrid public was able to obtain a copy during the 14 days they remained in the establishment. Until Goya decided to remove them, for fear of the Inquisition.
The series of engravings is one of the best known and praised by painters, writers and artists after the Aragonese. It was copied by Delacroix or praised by Baudelaire, who saw in Goya the prophet of a revolutionary change in art. The 80 prints reflect an evolution of the creator, who begins with a satire of manners influenced by his friends the “illustrated”—Jovellanos, Meléndez Valdés or Godoy—, with whom he shares a critical vision of the superstitious and clerical society of the time, and It leads to a disenchanted and dreamlike world, of witches, goblins and deformed faces, which advocates romanticism or expressionism of art in subsequent decades.
Saphero proudly displays plate 45, The dream of the reason produces monstersone of the most easily recognizable whims and symbol of a Goya whose illness and disenchantment led him on an artistic path that broke molds.
“When you look at his paintings, they are of extraordinary beauty. But the engravings… like The disasters of war, “They are dark, gloomy,” the bookseller thinks out loud, continuing to turn the pages and observe the pages one by one. Whims.
The first fall of Godoy and the fact that the Enlightenment – Frenchified – lost the favor of power made Goya begin to fear the shadow of the Inquisition, suspicious of engravings that harshly criticized the clergy and the high nobility. He immediately canceled the sale of the first edition. Four years later, in 1803, the painter wanted to save the series and decided to give it to Charles IV. She was assigned to the Royal Calcography, and in exchange obtained a lifetime pension of 12,000 reales per year for her son Javier.
The Whims They continue to be the subject of new analyzes and explanations, because they contain a world that is impossible to completely define, and of which the artist left few explanations. Engravings of erotic satire, which reflect his disappointment in love with the Duchess of Alba; Extremely harsh images against priests and nobles, but also images of witches, demons and goblins that appear, with a delicate and meticulous line, at the moment when reason sleeps.
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