A drunken mason is carried off the building site by two of his companions, who cannot repress their smirks at the drunk's situation: he lacks his trousers and his stockings have fallen down.

This is a sketch for the tapestry cartoon, The Injured Mason (P796), which is also in the Prado Museum collection. The comic interpretation of this work makes it unlikely that it was intended as a social criticism of the lack of safety for workers and masons, which is what has traditionally been said of the resultant cartoon.

This sketch is one of two from the series of tapestry cartoons commissioned from Goya by the Royal Tapestry Factory of Santa Bárbara. The tapestries were intended for the dining room of the Prince of Asturias, the future Carlos IV (1784-1819), at the El Pardo Palace. The death of Carlos III (1716-1788) and the new monarchs' preference for other Royal Seats, led this series to be hung in different rooms at El Escorial, in no particular order.