Mendigos que se llevan solos en Bordeaux (Beggars Who Get about on Their Own in Bordeaux)

Executed in monochrome chalk, the drawing balances fine line work for the faces with broader, gestural marks for the bodies, creating a contrast that highlights expression over anatomical completeness. The greenish hue of the laid paper adds a subtle tonal foundation, while the limited palette underscores the starkness of the subject.

Created during Goya’s exile in Bordeaux, the piece likely derives from direct observation of the city’s street life at the time. It remains part of the artist’s late‑period output, documenting his continued engagement with social themes despite his displacement from Spain.

The work belongs to a series of drawings and prints in which Goya explored the plight of the disenfranchised, a motif also evident in his earlier *Los Caprichos* and later *Los Desastres de la Guerra*. The Bordeaux setting situates the drawing within the broader European context of post‑Napoleonic upheaval and urban poverty.