In the album dubbed Witches and Old Women, Goya explored subjects from the mundane to the fantastic. While other sheets show more dynamic figures of elderly women fighting, possessed by nightmares, or laughing and singing, this sheet-- a more sober reflection on old age-depicts a sensitively observed woman moving slowly with her walking stick, with only her cat as company. -- Exhibition Label, from "Drawn to Greatness: Master Drawings from the Thaw Collection"
Inscribed by the artist in black chalk at lower center: "Habla con su [el] gato". Numbered by the artist in brush and brown wash at upper center, "21"; above this, numbered in pen and brown ink by Javier Goya, "28".
Watermark: Shield with diagonal bend, fragment.
Lebas, Paul, former owner.
Thaw, Eugene Victor, former owner.
Thaw, Clare, former owner.
The Morgan Library & Museum, New York, NY, "Drawn to Greatness: Master Drawings from the Thaw Collection", 2017. Exh. cat., no. 177, repr.
Stampfle, Felice, and Cara D. Denison. Drawings from the Collection of Mr. and Mrs. Eugene V. Thaw. New York : Pierpont Morgan Library, 1975, no. 65.