Dos a Uno, Meten La Paja en el Culo (If Two to One Stuff Your Arse with Straw)
Francisco Goya (1746-1828), Dos a Uno, Meten La Paja en el Culo (If Two to One Stuff Your Arse with Straw), also titled Disparate Conocido (The Well-Known Folly), etching and burnished aquatint, c. 1816. Reference: Tomas Harris 266. A proof before letters, before the First Edition impressions made by Francois Lienard for L’Art, published in 1877. On a fine laid Japan paper, in very good condition, with margins, 9 3/4 x 13 1/2, the sheet 10 15/16 by 15 inches. Archival mounting (with mylar non-attached hinging, window mat.
Provenance: ex Collection: Tomas Harris, with his ink stamp lower margin right verso (visible recto, not in Lugt). (Harris was, of course, the well known collector, Goya scholar and author of, among other things, the definitive Goya catalogue raisonne.)
This is before First Edition impressions, in which the letters were added (they had the title “Que Guerrero”, and below “Quel Guerrier!”, with “Goya inv. et sc.” and “L’Art” to the left and “F. Lienard Imp. Paris” to the right).
A fine impression of this great rarity, printed in a dark brownish/black ink.
Only one contemporary proof is known, in Madrid. This is one of the trial proofs made before 1877, on very thin Japan, more lightly inked than the first edition (1877) impressions and, according to Tomas Harris, almost identical to the working proof. The edition impressions are generally well printed but lack the fine clarity and aquatint contrasts of this proof.
The man at the left is running from the two scarecrow figures, and holds his hand in mock terror as if intended to amuse the crowd of dark figures behind him.