The Sleep of Reason Produces Monsters (El sueno de la razon produce monstruos) plate 43 from Los Caprichos
Artist
Francisco de Goya
(Spanish, 1746–1828)
Date1799
Mediumetching and aquatint on cream laid paper
Dimensionssheet: 21.1 x 15.1 cm (8 5/16 x 5 15/16 in.)
ClassificationsPrints
Credit LineSarah C. Garver Fund
Terms
Object number1962.129
Label TextPerhaps Goya’s most famous print, this was originally intended as the title page for his series of visual “Caprices,” and later moved to the middle of the suite. An intellectual has nodded off at his desk, and envisions bats and owls on the wing, prowling cats and a clear-eyed lynx. Like all the prints in Los Caprichos, the image and its theme are purposely ambiguous. Since sueño can mean either “sleep” or “dream,” the artist may suggest that the monsters inhabit the unconscious, or that reason is itself a kind of sleep, or both.
Etching and aquatint
Sarah C. Garver Fund, 1962.129
The recent increase in acts of violence worldwide, including this year's major tragedy in Spain, make even more poignant the works of great masters who focused on such difficult subjects. Throughout his career the Spanish master Goya created artworks that expressed his viewpoints on the horrors of war and the detriments that come from societies abandoning reason and humanity for fear, superstition, and mob-mentality. His themes and images are universal and still resonate with issues facing the world today.
Goya created this print as part of a series entitled Los Caprichos, or "Caprices," which he meant as a criticism of the "human errors and vices" of society. The title refers to the Enlightenment belief that without the guidance of reason society succumbs to corruption, injustice, and fear. Eighty prints in the series subtly attacked the church and nobility, but also general social ills and "themes from the multitude of follies and wrong-doings which are common to society" as Goya later wrote.
Goya illustrates himself as a sleeping artist here, beset by bats, owls and a peering black cat, creatures associated at the time with witchcraft and superstition. He also created two preparatory sketches for this etching, indicating the importance he placed on the image and the theme. A caption printed on the facing page read, "Imagination abandoned by reason produces impossible monsters. United with reason, she is the mother of arts and the source of their wonders."
Originally, this print was meant to be the frontispiece of the series, but Goya must have decided against it as it was closely related to two prints by the French artist Jean-Jeacques Rousseau, whose political viewpoints had made him a controversial figure to the religious and political leaders in Spain.ProvenanceCraddock and Barnard, London, UKOn View
Not on view
