Folio 39 from Album (the Bordeaux Album).
In 1826 Goya made several drawings depicting attractions at the fair in Bordeaux. One such spectacle was the female giant, whom he portrayed towering over a crowd of ogling sensation seekers. By compressing this group, Goya created a margin to the left where he has added his signature. The pentimento of the woman's right arm, previously raised above the crowd, accentuates the crude gaze, directed at her anatomy, of two male spectators. Goya thus offers an inverted vision of humanity by contrasting the dignity of the fairground freak with the indecorous stares from the crowd below. --Exhibition Label, from "Visions and Nightmares: Four Centuries of Spanish Drawings"
Inscribed by the artist at upper center, "feria en - / Bordeaux, at upper right, 39".
Watermark: heart surmounted by trefoil, upper fragment of larger watermark.
Weyhe, Erhard, former owner.
Dennis, Gertrude W., former owner.
From Leonardo to Pollock: Master drawings from the Morgan Library. New York: Morgan Library, 2006, cat. no. 28, p. 62-63.