Artwork
Of What Ill Will He Die?, Plate 40
Of What Ill Will He Die?, Plate 40 is a print by the Romanticist artist Francisco Goya. It dates from 1799 and is held in the collection of the Cleveland Museum of Art. Of What Ill Will He Die?
About this work
Overview
, Plate 40 is one of eighty prints from Francisco de Goya’s series Los Caprichos, produced around 1799.
Of What Ill Will He Die?, Plate 40 is one of eighty prints from Francisco de Goya’s series Los Caprichos, produced around 1799. It is a drypoint and aquatint on paper, part of a critical commentary on Spanish society. The image is held in the collection of The Cleveland Museum of Art, where it is displayed as an example of Goya’s darkly satirical vision during his transition from court painter to social critic.
Subject & Meaning
The scene portrays a donkey in human clothing kneeling beside a dying woman, their hands clasped in a gesture that mimics human compassion. The woman’s contorted expression and the donkey’s solemn posture invert natural hierarchies, suggesting moral decay or the absurdity of human pretense. The title’s rhetorical question implies suspicion—perhaps the woman’s suffering stems not from illness, but from betrayal or neglect by those who should care for her.
Technique & Style
Goya employed drypoint and aquatint to achieve deep blacks and subtle tonal gradations, enhancing the scene’s somber mood. The stark chiaroscuro isolates the figures against a near-black background, drawing attention to their intimate yet unsettling interaction. Bold, expressive lines define the contours of the figures, while the texture of the paper and ink suggests rawness and immediacy, reinforcing the emotional gravity of the moment.
History & Provenance
Created during Goya’s period of personal and political disillusionment, the print was part of a privately circulated set intended to critique superstition, corruption, and ignorance. The series was withdrawn from public sale after only a few months due to fear of censorship. The Cleveland Museum of Art acquired the print in the 20th century, preserving it as a key artifact of early modern printmaking and social critique.
Context
Goya produced Los Caprichos amid the Enlightenment’s decline and the rise of religious and political repression in Spain. The series targeted the clergy, aristocracy, and popular credulity, using animal figures to expose human folly. Of What Ill Will He Die? reflects anxieties about death, deception, and the erosion of moral authority—themes resonant in a society where institutional trust was crumbling.
Legacy
This print, like others in Los Caprichos, influenced later generations of artists grappling with social injustice and psychological depth. Its symbolic inversion of species and roles prefigured modernist distortions of form and meaning. Though initially met with silence or fear, the work now stands as a landmark in the history of printmaking for its unflinching gaze at human vulnerability and hypocrisy.
Artist & collection
Artist
Francisco José de Goya y Lucientes (; Spanish: ; 30 March 1746 – 16 April 1828) was a Spanish romantic painter and printmaker.
