The Rendezvous belongs to a series of tapestry cartoons prepared for the decoration of the anteroom to the bedchamber of the Prince and Princess of Asturias in the Palace of El Pardo. These were commissioned together with the cartoons for the bedchamber in October, 1777, when Goya was still finishing the cartoons for the dining room. The bedchamber and its anteroom were contiguous, separated only by an archway, and the decoration, devoted to popular themes of life in Madrid, formed a single unit. Misunderstanding between the painter and the tapestry weavers at the Royal Tapestry Factory of Santa Bárbara forced Goya to redo some of the works, such as the main cartoon for the anteroom, The Blind Guitarist, and finish the cartoons commissioned for the bedchamber tapestries first, leaving the others to complete later, in 1780. The Swing, The Washerwomen, The Bullfight and The Tobacco Guard, along with the scenes over the windows, belong to this series. In these works, the painter evolved a new style and technique, since the difficulties posed by his earlier cartoons for the factory´s weavers forced him to simplify the scenes, reducing the number of figures and the variety of colors, which became more somber.

Goya himself described The Rendevous in the delivery invoice for the caroon to the Royal Tapestry Factory of Santa Bárbara, in January 1780: “It represents a seated woman who is reclining on a terrace, behind her two figures observing her sadness, and on the other side four figures in the distance”. In fact, the attitude and posture of the figure seated on the ground, head in hand, is traditional in depictions of Melancholy, and some have considered her to be a representation of his emblematic artistic figure. The well-dressed young woman, with her silver-buckled patent-leather shoes and blue mantle, is holding not only her head, but also a handkerchief, evidently damp with tears. The cause of her unhappiness has to do with what is going on around her. It appears that she is outside the city under an evening sky, in a place for romantic trysts, judging by the background figures. The aging “go-between”, accompanied by a man, and the other four men to the left, according to Goya, are observing the young girl´s sadness and perhaps hoping to take advantage of her solitude. Nothing is said about the masculine figure, wearing a hat and cape, seen from behind as he leaves the scene. His action may be related to the young girl´s unhappiness; perhaps he has abandoned her after a flirtation or an argument. Evidently, what Goya wishes to illustrate is the fleeting nature of swift and calculated afternoon love affairs, as he would do several years later in the etchings called Caprices (Text drawn from Mena B., Manuela, The Majesty of Spain, Jackson, Mississippi, 2001, p. 88).

Mena Marqués, M. B., The Rendezvous. En: The Majesty of Spain. Royal Collections From the Museo del Prado, Jackson, Mississipi Commission For International Cultural Heritage, 2001, p.88