Gallant Quizzing a Maja
1795 - 1796. Wash, Bistre on laid paper.Not on display
Madrid Sketchbook [B], page 19. The first fifty-four drawings in the Madrid Sketchbook lack inscriptions by Goya and have been assigned descriptive titles in subsequent catalogues. The title by which this sheet has always been known exemplifies the myth that all the women in the artist’s work are majas. In fact, this figure is a prostitute, as revealed in the contemporary commentaries on Capricho 7, Even Thus He Cannot Make Her Out, which is based on this drawing: "So blinded are lustful men that even with a glass they can’t make out that the lady of their attentions is a whore."
Matilla, J.M. Mena M.B., Goya: dibujos. Solo la voluntad me sobra, Madrid, Museo Nacional del Prado, 2019, p.288 nº 192
