This scene shows a figure kneeling in a rocky landscape, with both arms lifted, next to a woman who has fainted and is supported by two men. The cause of the drama is not made evident; the figures are reminiscent of auxiliary groups in depictions of the crucifixion. However they more clearly seem to quote Goya’s famous ‘Shooting of Third May 1808’ (Madrid, Prado). This reference, the figure style, choice of enigmatic subject matter and drawing technique of the washed brush drawing are all reminiscent of Goya.

Goya’s drawings are exceedingly rare and have been widely copied and forged both during the artist’s life time and in the 20th century for a market eager to buy Goya’s work. This sheet is by all likelihood such a forgery from the 20th century and had been acquired by Sir Brinsley Ford as a forgery.

This drawing is an amalgam of three drawings after Francisco Goya y Lucientes from his Album C. 7 . Al desierto p.[ar]a ser santo, amen (Gone to the desert to become a saint, amen) ¬ C. 19 Be V.d q.e expr.[esio]n, pues no lo cree el marido (See how expressive this looks, but the husband doesn’t believe it) – C. 51 Esto ya se be (This is a sight often seen) Museo Nacional del Prado. D003995 (C.7), D003914 (C.19), D004043 (C.51 - see Courtauld D.2011.XX.5 https://www.museodelprado.es/coleccion/obra-de-arte/al-desierto-para-ser-santo-amen/2ab7249f-843c-4a88-97a3-0174a84ecb9b https://www.museodelprado.es/coleccion/obra-de-arte/be-vd-que-expresion-pues-no-lo-cree-el-marido/b2ddd91f-7f1b-4b51-8ae8-ac6170daaa16 Hints of other figures of women that may also be reflected in the one seen here (e.g. C.106). The landscape background with a great rock is taken from C.7, the man with arms raised, who is detached here and seen kneeling on the ground, has been separated from the figure supporting the fainting woman, here moved to the right, while the addition of the praying or chanting monk clutching his small crucifix (from C.51, the other Courtauld fake) closes the wide-spread group of three that is almost unreadably compact in Goya’s drawing. The dramatic posture of the original fainting woman is altered to suggest a more ambiguous incident here, perhaps related to the next drawing in Goya’s sequence (C.20) which depicts a voluptuous young woman whose “lover has died and she’s off to the convent”, as she reclines against a rock surmounted by a cross… his grave and the end of her earthly pleasure… with the same motifs, rock and cross, included for the naked man in the desert (C.7). Album C was acquired by the Prado in 1872, nearly intact (with 120 of the 133 original sheets). There it would have been accessible to authorised researchers and students. Presumably that is where the copyist of this sheet accessed it.

Tomás Harris, London and Majorca (1908-1964); purchased from him by Colnaghi (London), 13 February 1928 (as Goya, 'Dying Woman and other Figures', £20); purchased there by Henry Oppenheimer, London (1859-1932), 20 February 1928 (£120, including D.2011.XX.5); his estate sale, Christie's (London), 10 and 13 - 14 July 1936, lot 460 (as a forgery, along with D.2011.XX.5 and D.2011.XX.8); purchased there by Sir Brinsley Ford (1908-1999); by descent to his son, Francis Ford; Gift of Francis Ford, 2011

Art and Artifice: Fakes from the Collection, The Courtauld Gallery, London, 17/06/2023-08/10/2023

Watermark: crowned shield bearing a cross surrounded by filigree lines (appears similar in type but with a more modest crown to Heawood 777-78 and 780 - Lisbon 1759 and 1751 respectively).

Inscription: Verso: lower right edge, graphite, Colnaghi inventory number: "A 5061". Mount (removed, now missing, see photograph in file), Recto of aperture: lower right corner, brown ink: “No 706”. Mount (removed, recorded in acquisition report), Verso of back board: upper left corner, graphite, Colnaghi inventory number: “A5061, 12”; lower left corner, red crayon, lot in Oppenheimer sale - also appears on D.2011.XX.5 and D.2011.XX.8: “460”.

Label: Handwritten in black ink: "These were bought as / FAKES of Guys / Goya / and Tiepolo / and might be of interest to / the Courtauld Institute".

Collector's mark: none.