Presentation
In 2014 the Botín Foundation and the Prado Museum signed a collaboration agreement regarding the study and cataloguing of Francisco de Goya’s drawings. Publication of the catalogue raisonné of Francisco de Goya’s drawings, Catálogo razonado de los dibujos de Francisco de Goya , will begin in 2017. The catalogue was put together by the team of conservators responsible for Goya’s works at the Prado Museum, namely Manuela Mena, José Manuel Matilla, Gudrun Maurer and Gloria Solache, in collaboration with external specialists such as Juan Carrete, Juliet Wilson and Virginia Albarrán.
This catalogue will consist of five volumes. The second volume will be published in 2017, coinciding with the exhibition at the Botín Centre of Goya’s drawings from the Prado Museum. This volume will study the drawings from the early years of his career, up until the early 1790s. Of particular note among these are four major series of drawings: Italian Notebook (Cuaderno italiano), the preparatory sketches for his paintings and cartoons for tapestries, the content of his Letters to Martín Zapater (Cartas a Martín Zapater) and the content associated with the etchings of those early years, culminating with the preparatory work for his Copies of Velázquez (Copias de Velázquez).
The first volume, which studies Goya’s work in the medium of drawing, and volumes 3 to 5, which will provide a chronological study of the drawings from his private albums, the preparatory drawings for his major series of etchings and other drawings created on an individual basis or as part of series for various projects, will be published in 2019 for the occasion of the Prado Museum’s 200th anniversary and the anthological exhibition of Goya’s drawings that will be held by the museum.