A preparatory drawing for the etching, Capricho 57, The filiation (G02145). Together, the twenty-six pen-and-ink drawings that constitute the basis for The Caprichos are known as The Dreams. The first, Dream 1, The Author Dreaming (D03923), became number 43 in the Caprichos. This was a common subject during that period. In the composition, a standing man reads to a seated woman. Both wear masks. Another man scrutinizes them with a monocle while the monkey on his shoulders looks directly out at the viewer, and various other figures appear in the background. The layout of the print does not entirely correspond to that of the preparatory drawing. The reading man has been replaced by a woman, and there are two figures standing behind them, rather than one. Moreover, these two wear a different hat than the one that appears in the original composition. The print’s subject (with coincides with that of the preparatory drawing) is clarified by Valentín Carderera’s handwritten notes at both the Museo del Prado and the Biblioteca Nacional. The first reads: Here it is a matter of fooling the suitor by showing him, in the record of nobility, who the young lady’s parents, grandparents, great grandparents and great-great grandparents were. And who is she? He will soon find out. The meaning becomes even clearer in Carderera’s second note: Vain people pretend to descend from great men, when their distant relatives are barely known, and it takes a pair of spectacles even to see what is close by. Goya’s social criticism is manifest here. The Museo del Prado has a series of works related to Dream 11 (G02145/G00651), while the Musée du Louvre has a preliminary drawing in India ink from Album B, 59 (?), and there is a steel-plated copper plate from the same series at Madrid’s Calcografía Nacional (217 x 152 mm, 503.05 g. No. 3483). (Text from: Matilla, J.M. and others: El libro de los Caprichos. Francisco de Goya: dos siglos de interpretaciones, 1799-1999. Catálogo de los dibujos, pruebas de estado, láminas de cobre y estampas de la primera edición, Museo Nacional del Prado, Madrid, 1999, pp. 21, 298).