A Donkey on Two Legs
1824 - 1828. Pencil on laid paper.Not on display
Bordeaux Sketchbook [G], sheet 20. While Goya may have witnessed such a scene on the streets of Bordeaux, his illustrations of everyday life are always moralizing in nature. Donkeys walking on two legs are the subject of a related group of prints in the Caprichos series in which they act like humans-or rather, humans act like donkeys. Here, an audience laughs uproariously at the animal’s performance. This laughter-a common element in the Bordeaux drawings and lithographs-is not, however, that of intelligent amusement but a mark of sadistic pleasure taken at the suffering of others.
Matilla, J.M. Mena M.B., Goya: dibujos. Solo la voluntad me sobra, Madrid, Museo Nacional del Prado, 2019, p.314 nº 209
