Goya: Album C

A precious collaboration between Skira and the Museo del Prado in Madrid, which is celebrating its 200th anniversary this year, this work is an accurate reproduction of the precious Album C composed of over 100 drawings by the master Goya.

The Album C is an example of the complexity of Goya's work; made over the course of the War for Independence and the following years of repression, its theme is influenced in many aspects by the historical moment (1808-1820). The work is now reproduced in facsimile in an integral version, published in limited edition of only 500 numbered copies, signed by hand using calligraphy and thus is a precious and unique object for the impassioned collector. The Album C covers a vast range of topics, from aspects of everyday life (with the presence of numerous beggars) to dreamy visions of the night world; a vast group of sheets is made up of drawings of prisoners of the Inquisition and scenes of cruelty in prisons. Another group concerns a critique of habits of monastic orders and the representation of monastic life, secularised after the decrees of French authorities.

This is the most important and unique album that has survived almost intact, without dismemberment or subsequent selling, and it is held at the Museo del Prado, formerly in the Museo della Trinità. Of the 126 drawings known, 120 are at the Museo del Prado, one at the National Library in Madrid (C 56), one at the British Museum of London (C 88), two at the Hispanic Society of America in New York (C 71 and C 128) and another two in a private collection in New York (C 11 and C 78). Alongside the album facsimile of drawings, a small volume is also published that contains an essay by José Manuel Matilla Rodríguez (art historian and director of the Drawings and Prints Department at the Museo Nacional del Prado) and captions of the works: the texts are published in Spanish, English, French, Italian and German.

Published for the exhibition of drawings by Goya at the Prado, both works - on drawings and accompanying text - are joined in a slipcase in quality eco-leather.