Because She Was Susceptible
1797 - 1798. Red wash, Red chalk.Not on display
Preliminary drawing for Capricho 32. The title of the Capricho on which this drawing is based, Because She Was Susceptible, explains the reason for the subject’s unhappy and unmerited situation. Her "susceptibility" is in fact that of allowing herself to be carried away by her feelings, affections, and sexual desires. Solitary confinement is the method used to break the will of this young woman, depicted with a suffering face in a dark room illuminated by a lantern that emphasizes her whiteness, a color Goya habitually employed for innocent victims. The artist criticizes the way in which women are denied moral, sexual, and physical agency in an image consistently interpreted along these lines by his contemporaries.
Matilla, J.M. Mena M.B., Goya: dibujos. Solo la voluntad me sobra, Madrid, Museo Nacional del Prado, 2019, p.337 nº 228
