Goya's Witches and Old Women Album drawings

Here are three drawings I produced while I was at the The Courtauld Gallery exploring through Goya's The Witches and Old Women Album, where the gallery had a series of drawings from a book Goya developed based around the theme of witches and old age in the later stages of his life, I drew the figures from three different pages from the book, where I focused on showing the positioning of the figures, where I wanted to drew the figures with accuracy also showing the darker areas of the illustrations, like the shadows of the figures. 

 

I did like the Goya's illustrations, where I found Goya work very interesting in the way he focused on dark themes in his work with loneliness being a large part of that. 

 

Just can't go on at the age of 98.

This drawing is a drawing of the illustration Just can't go on at the age of 98.

 

The original image is the last known page of the Witches and Old Women album. Goya presents a universal image of old age; an ancient person shuffling forward with the aid of two sticks.

The figure's isolation is suggested by the placement low on the sheet and the absence of any setting.

The caption underlines his or her mental and physical frailty.

Despite this infirm state the figure's struggles on' thus embodying an ideal that the artist himself always followed even in his own old age.

 

 I like this drawing I produced because I believe I have drawn the figure very accurately, with the position of the figure being similar to that from the original image, but I should have drawn the hand and different parts of the figures clothing with better accuracy.  

 

What folly, still to be thinking of marriage.

This is the second drawing I produced based around another one of Goya's Illustrations.

 

Isolated on the page as she is in the world, this haggard old women is accompanied only by her shadow, walking stick and Rosary beads, which she fondles with her knotty hands.

 Her folly is to be dreaming of marriage, even in the extreme old age.

Goya often addressed the subject of marriage in his work, including commenting on violent and unequal unions.

His Perspective here may not be entirely sympathetic as the old crone obsessed by her unrealistic fantasies can be interpreted as an example of the world turned upside down. 

 

I believe this drawing is alright because again the position of the figure is similar to that from the original image, but next time I need to as if it was coming out of the sleeve and to draw the figures face and head shape more accurately, I prefer the other two drawings to this one.

 

Showing off ? Remember your age Valentias ? 

This is the third and last drawing I developed again from one of Goya's illustrations. 

 

 The acrobatics of the women tumbling headlong down a flight of steps may initially seem to be captured spontaneously.

However scraping and small changes around the head and torso indicate that Goya deliberately reworked the drawing in order to fit the women's body precisely into the architecture of the stairs.

The inscription addresses the figure directly.

It may also refer ironically that Goya himself, still flaunting his bravura with brush and paper in his advancing years.

 

I like this drawing because out of the three I felt in terms of the position of the figure and stairs it was the hardest to draw, but I believe I have drawn it well where the figure I feel has been placed right in my drawing, similar again to Goya's illustration I feel, but next time again I have to draw the figures face with much better accuracy because it looks nothing like her.