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The exhibition Goya drawings restored presents the work undertaken
by the Museum's paper restoration studio over the last few years,
with specific reference to the restoration of drawings by Goya.
The group on display includes a sizeable number
of what we at the Prado refer to as the "Yellowed Caprichos".
Naturally, if you look in the literature you will not find any such term
for a series of drawings by Goya
as it is a name that we gave them in the paper restoration studio
and in the curatorial department to refer to a group
of fourteen drawings that had a decidedly yellowed appearance,
hence the term "Yellowed Caprichos", as they are preparatory drawings for that series of prints.
These "Yellowed Caprichos" had been covered with a layer of starch,
probably in the late 19th or early 20th centuries, in order to protect them
and to be able to display them on a long-term basis on the walls of the Museum.
The starch yellowed due to the effects of oxidisation
with the result that the drawings were no longer suitable for display.
The Museum's restoration studio, based in the Jerónimos Building,
embarked on the task of eliminating this layer of yellowed starch
varnish and of returning the drawings to their original appearance,
in order to see them almost exactly as they were originally.
As well as removing the layer of starch,
the restorers also set out to give the paper back its original consistency.
Furthermore, the paper had buckled extensively due to the numerous mounts
that had been attached to these drawings during the time
they had spent in the Museum,
involving the application of adhesives to the reverse of the sheets.
In addition to the layer of yellowed starch
they had thus also become very wrinkled,
which made them look even odder and more unattractive.
Removing those adhesives,
replacing the moisture that had been lost in these sheets
and eliminating the starch has made it possible
to put these drawings back on display in the Museum's galleries,
which has not been the case for a great many years.
The exhibition is not just confined to the "Yellowed Caprichos"
as it also includes some small new discoveries.
I say "small" because when we undertook a review of our collection
in order to prepare the new website of all Goya's works in the Prado
we noticed that one of the drawings,
depicting a street in Madrid, was stuck down onto a backing sheet.
When we removed it in the restoration studio
it became evident that on the reverse there was a small,
rapid sketch in red chalk of a building.
Investigating the subject of that sketch,
we realised that it was a view of Juan de Villanueva's Astronomical Observatory in Madrid.
This was a previously unknown view, both from the point of view of depictions of the building
and from that of its inclusion in Goya's oeuvre.
As I say, it had not been noticed by curators in the past
as the presence of a backing sheet had prevented us
from seeing what was on the reverse of the drawing.
This small sketch, which, as I say, is on the reverse
and is executed in red chalk in a very summary manner,
is possibly the first existing image of the Astronomical Observatory
while it was still being built in the early 1790s.
You can see that it still lacks the small lateral cupolas,
while the slope of the hill down to calle Atocha has not yet been built on.
This is a small discovery and, as I say,
the result of the review of Goya's drawings that we undertook in the restoration studio.
The other work in this exhibition
is perhaps one of Goya's most iconic drawings
and one of the most important, appearing in all the literature on the artist.
I refer to the famous sheet known as Aun aprendo, meaning "I am still learning".
Executed by Goya during his final years in Bordeaux,
it depicts an old man walking along with some difficulty,
leaning on his sticks. Goya himself entitled it I am still learning.
It has always been interpreted as an allegorical self-portrait
or a symbolic image of the artist during his years of exile
when he recovered his enthusiasm for life and his desire to continue working.
These were years when he manifested his satisfaction at being able to learn
the new technique of lithography and he clearly expressed his state of mind at the time in a letter
recently acquired by the Prado
that he wrote to the banker Ferrer in Bordeaux. In it, Goya says:
"[...] Neither ink, nor pulse, nor sight, nor paper, I lack everything and all that I have in excess is willpower."
It is the combination of the phrases "all that I have in excess is willpower"
and "I am still learning" that makes this drawing a living testament on the part of the artist.
I am still learning has not been on display in Spain
since the mid-1970s, if not earlier.
It had various damaged areas on the surface
to the zones of lithographic pigment, which had suffered losses.
This pigment had probably been eroded by some mechanical process
although other experts consider it could have been due to a biological attack, specifically an insect eating the paper.
However, in the Museum we consider that it was probably due
to a mechanical problem that took place in the 1960s or 1970s.
What we do know is that the drawing had never been put on display in the Prado for conservation reasons.
Thanks to the recent revision of the artist's drawings undertake
at the Museum and to the fact that we found a photograph that showed the drawing in its original state,
in the new works on paper restoration studio we have very carefully
and cautiously filled in all the losses and have thus been able
to present this symbolic work by Francisco de Goya to the public.
I should mention that all the restoration work on these drawings has been carried out
by three permanent members of the Museum's restoration team:
Javier Macarrón, María Eugenia Sicilia and Minako Wada,
who are the restorers entrusted with the current project
for the restoration and preventative conservation of Goya's drawings at the Museum.