The Spanish Manner: Drawings From Ribera to Goya

The first thing viewers might notice about the drawings on display at the Frick is the sometimes bawdy sense of humor.

The Frick Collection, New York

Through Jan. 9, 2011

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Yet Goya was capable of far more than crude humor, said Jonathan Brown in Artnews.com. His brush-and-wash drawings are unlike those of almost anyone else: These thoroughly finished compositions “resemble little paintings,” and often feature small inscriptions that complement the pictures’ themes. In Joy (1816–20), which simply shows two figures thrashing their legs in the air, “Goya has suspended the laws of gravity.” Emotionally resonant, the picture is also pleasing in its details. Where the loose clothing of the figures is rendered with freely flowing brush strokes, the faces are “delineated with the delicacy” of a painter of miniatures. Again and again, “Goya pleases us with his artistry as he teases us with his wit and imagination.”